The X Chronicles Book Two: Marked for Death
by ghidorah5464
Summary: An Xilian-made replica of the alien artifact known as the Marker lands on Earth. When X finds it, the hallucinations that it creates in his mind send him on a crusade that could mean disaster for the Earth, leaving it up to his own friends to stop him.
1. Prologue

**Prologue:**

Every great hero has a journey. And during that journey, every hero has a moment of weakness.

There isn't a single person who hasn't a weakness. And there will always be somebody or something ready to exploit that weakness for his or her own personal gain.

Not all heroes are able to overcome this weakness. Some are unfortunate enough to succumb to it. Most would say to run away when you know that you cannot win. However, there are some things that nobody can escape from. Such as their past, and the guilt they feel because of it. Guilt can be a powerful weapon when used to another's advantage. In the right hands, it can cause unprecedented disaster.

This is such a story.

Imagine having everything that you could possibly want: a devoted spouse, beautiful children, and a loving family. All of that can be taken from you in an instant. Imagine that you're strong enough to prevent that from happening. You can protect that which you care about. But when you succumb to that weakness of yours, can you protect them from yourself? Especially when you're as powerful as you are?


	2. Not Leaving Yet

**Chapter One: Not Leaving Yet.**

Time flies when you're having fun. Not that said phrase really applies to this situation, as fun would not be the words many would use to describe the events that had transpired in that timeframe. Almost three months prior, the alien race known as the Visitors made yet another bid to take over the Earth, as they had over five and a half centuries ago. Their queen, known as Anna, almost succeeded until she was thwarted and killed by X Sendjin and the Xilians visiting Earth at the time. Their bad blood with the Visitors worked out well for the people of Earth.

Now, three months later, the Xilians' vacation seemed to have gone past its original date of conclusion. Still, X Sendjin, his wife Kendra, and their children Ezio and Chester still remained on Earth, as did X's father Sam and their friends and comrades, Zan, Milo, and Grover. They were made welcome by X's twin brother, Ozaki, his wife Miyuki and their twins, Emma and Sam.

X had, a few weeks prior to the present time, given birth to 6,000 Xilian eggs, which were delivered safely to Planet X. He was chosen by Eywa for this, something that X was extremely proud of. Grover, who was working at McDonalds, was able to pay off the money that he owed Sam. As soon as he had, he and his ikran Mirza were quick to drop Grover's irritable boss onto a perilous rooftop. It seemed like all was going well for them. Sam even considered buying a house on Earth for them to use during visits.

However, as they knew very well, few good things ever last.

Especially when you're a Kaiser.


	3. Lovin It

**Chapter Two: Loving It.**

X sat in the play area, watching his sons, nephew and niece frolicking on all fours around the room. He smiled at them. Whenever he looked at Ezio or Chester, no matter what mood he was in, they always brought a smile to his face. Chester had begun crawling, but had a habit of tripping over his own feet. And, naturally, he'd wail and cry like he'd just broken an arm. Ezio didn't seem to care. Nor did he care about much that went on. He was a very independent child, rarely playing with the others unless Sam had something that he wanted, in which case it was war. Emma's playing capabilities were often hindered by her thumb constantly being in her mouth. Miyuki was trying to break that bad habit of hers, but Emma was persistent in her thumb sucking. Sam seemed to be increasingly attached to Emma, constantly shoving things in her face that he wanted her to play with. Naturally, Emma remained where she was, as she couldn't crawl with her thumb in her mouth. Although it was difficult to tell, X could've sworn that he heard Emma trying to form words. Naturally, though, her thumb in her mouth often made it difficult to discern words from just sounds.

Ezio's favorite toy hands-down was his play sword that Uncle Zan had given him. He had to be kept away from the others when he had that weapon. He was a danger to them and to himself when he had it, hitting himself in the back of the head on several occasions. He even slept with it in his crib. Sam always enjoyed noisy toys and Emma liked the building blocks with letters on them, always making haphazard attempts at spelling words. Chester was constantly between toys, crawling back and forth between them.

Emma had grown extremely attached to Miyuki, which may have been attributed to Emma being the only one who was breastfed. Sam took a liking to both Ozaki and Grandpa Sam, his namesake. With Ezio and Chester, it was very case-sensitive. Such as who was feeding them or playing with them at the time.

X was separating Ezio and Sam, who were fighting over a ball, when Kendra called him from the other room.

"X! Zan and Milo are leaving to pick up Grover and the food. Are you going with them?"

"Yeah, I'm coming!" X shouted back. "Tell them to wait a minute!"

He put the wailing Ezio in the playpen away from Sam, tossing the ball in question in with him before hurrying out the door. As he left the apartment, he slapped Ozaki's hand, who was standing nearby.

"You're it, bro," he said, motioning toward the playroom.

Ozaki smiled and headed toward the playroom door. It was his shift now.

X dove into the passenger seat of the car. Milo was driving, as Zan could never be trusted behind the wheel. While both acted out often, Milo was typically the more responsible and sensible one. His training as a Xilian telepath/telekinetic made him into a much more disciplined soldier than Zan, who was trained in single combat. Milo didn't even need to touch the wheel. He could move it just as easily with his mind. He'd committed the memory the way to the McDonalds where Grover worked. It was the weekend, and Grover usually ran the drive-thru at this time. As they pulled up to the microphone, they heard Grover's voice over the intercom.

"Welcome to McDonalds. May I take your order?"

X handed Zan the megaphone in the back seat. He clicked it on, leaned in close to the mic, and took a deep breath.

"FOUR BIG MACS, TWO CHICKEN SANDWICHES, ONE FISH FILET, ONE MCRIB, AND A 10 PIECE CHICKEN NUGGETS!"

There was no response from the intercom at first. After a few seconds, they heard groans gradually come closer to the mic. Grover's voice sounded again.

"You want… fries… with that?"

Zan leaned in close again. "YES!"

Again, a moment of silence. Finally, Grover spoke again. "Ok… come to the pickup window…"

"OK THANKS!"

Zan put away the megaphone, he, Milo, and X howling with laughter. They pulled up to the line, which stretched nearly across the entire restaurant. Time seemed to slow down as they sat, motionless in line. Zan was leaning his head back on the headrest of the seat, his eye twitching. X was leaning out the window, looking bored. Milo was to attention, as he always was. Finally, they reached the pickup window, where a young woman was waiting with their massive meal.

"Oh… it's you guys again," she said, sounding irritated. "I wondered why Grover looked so peeved."

Zan leaned out the window, smiling coyly.

"So you remember me?" he asked her. "Maybe we could get to know each other… better."

Zan's response was a scalding apple pie to the face. The girl handed Milo the food as Zan sat, humbled, back in his seat while X tried to keep from laughing.

"Oh, and would you tell Grover that we'll be waiting for him outside?" Milo asked her. "And don't try and tell me he doesn't get off at this time, I've committed his work shift to memory."

They drove out to the parking lot to wait for Grover. About 10 minutes later he came out, looking very irritated.

"Thanks for dropping by," he said. "I'll bill you for the hearing aid that I now require."

Zan laughed as Grover got in the back with X.

"Hey, try and convince Sam to let Mirza pick you up, then you won't have to worry about that anymore," he said.

"Yeah, like that'll ever happen," Grover muttered. "He doesn't want the existence of ikrans on Earth to become public."

"Yeah, and hearing that you had a billion of them attack the V's ships three months ago must've been music to his ears after being dead," Milo replied as they pulled out of McDonalds.

Grover grimaced. When Sam found out after being revived, he was not pleased with him. He wouldn't let Grover near the banshees after that, even though he'd grown attached to them.


	4. Abby

**Chapter Three: Abby.**

"Hey, Grover? Any lookers stop in today?" Zan asked him.

Grover paused for a minute to think. "Well, there was one…" he said finally, looking down slightly.

"Same one as always?" X asked him.

"Yep…" Grover said, smiling.

"What was her name again?" Zan asked. "Allie?"

Grover sighed. "No, her name's Abby. Short for Abbigail. She always comes by for her lunch break."

"Have you talked to her at all since last time?" Milo asked him.

"Yeah, actually," Grover replied. "She invited me to sit with her during my break. Eywa… she's even more beautiful up close than from behind a counter."

"I'd be careful, Grover," Zan advised him. "She finds out you're not human, she'll have your ass thrown in prison."

"Oh, she already knows," Grover replied.

The car swerved sharply. Milo's kinesis had temporarily broken when he heard that. Zan choked on a bite of his Big Mac and X's hand suddenly closed tightly around his ketchup packet, spraying Milo in the back of the head with ketchup.

"You TOLD her?" Milo shouted.

"Grover, of all the stupid things you've done over the years!" Zan yelled.

"Sam is going to flay you alive!" X roared.

Zan reached into his trench coat pocket and pulled out a gun

"You know what we have to do now, Grover…" he said, ominously.

"She knows too much…" Milo said. "We CAN make it look like it was an accident…"

"Don't worry!" Grover yelled angrily. "She didn't freak out and she promised to keep it a secret."

"Grover!" Milo shouted. "You've known her for only a few weeks! How can you trust her?"

"I… I just do," Grover replied.

Zan stared at Grover blankly. "Yep, we have to kill her."

"NO!" Grover yelled again. "It was weird. When I told her that I was Xilian, she looked more… relieved than surprised. She didn't even ask me what a Xilian was. It almost seemed like something that she'd been waiting for, or something."

X sighed. "You're delusional, Grover. You think this random human girl who you just happen to meet at work actually knows what Xilians are and has been WAITING to meet them?"

"I told you, it was just a feeling," Grover replied. "Anyway, I'm not gonna let you guys kill her. We can trust her, I know it."

Zan sighed and put his gun away slowly. "Ok, Grover. But if ANYTHING slips up at all, we CAN find her and put her down."

"Let's hope that's not necessary," X said. "For your sake, Grover…"

Grover swallowed. He now hoped too. He knew Sam's wrath was a horrible thing to incur.


	5. Love is Infectious

**Chapter Four: Love is Infectious.**

Naturally, with Zan's impulse to talk and X's inability to keep secrets, word soon got out to the others about Abby. Kendra and Miyuki were thrilled that Grover had met a girl, continually trying to convince him to make a move on her. As much as he wanted to, Grover's natural cowardice hindered his attempts to do so. Zan and X made many less than subtle attempts to help him do so. One of their more daring was dimming the McDonalds' lights and playing romantic music on a radio while Grover and Abby were talking. It wasn't hard for Grover to have them kicked out.

As the weeks passed, the group began to lose hope in Grover. He'd told the drive-thru girl to keep X and Zan out of the restaurant, saying that he wanted to do things on his own this time. The others were questioning if this meant that he was going to do it at all. Finally, after three weeks, Grover burst through the apartment door with an expression of joy on his face.

"WE'RE GOING OUT NEXT WEEKEND!"

Zan raised an eyebrow. "Who? You and the dry-cleaning lady?"

Grover frowned. "Ok, don't even joke about that, Zan. She scares the hell out of me."

"Join the club," laughed X.

"Wait, you and Abby!" Kendra exclaimed.

"Yeah!" Grover said excitedly. His eyes were bright with excitement.

"Wait a second…" said Zan. "You actually asked her out?"

"Well… no," said Grover. "She asked me…"

Milo snickered. X had to leave the room. Zan rolled his eyes. "How predictable."

Kendra ran to hug Grover. "I'm so happy for you! We all are!" Zan didn't respond. Milo looked away, smirking. Kendra gritted her teeth. "We… all… are…" Milo stopped smirking but Zan remained silent.

The group sat down for dinner as Grover told them about how he bumped into Abby at the park. The two began talking on a bench when Abby asked Grover if he wanted to go out sometime.

"That's all well and good," said Zan. "Now, when are you going to bang her?"

Grover suddenly turned bright red. Kendra rose violently from her seat and grabbed Zan by the shirt with rage burning in her eyes at Zan's comment.

"SHUT YOUR FILTHY MOUTH OR I'LL CUT YOUR TONGUE OFF!"

In the other room, Chester could be heard sobbing. X jumped from his seat and ran to the kids' room.

"Kendra, you're scaring the kids!"

"As they should be," Zan muttered. Kendra grabbed a steak knife and held it to Zan's throat.

"UNCLE! UNCLE!" he yelled. "GUYS, GET HER OFF OF ME!"

At an apartment building several blocks away, a man stood on the roof with a large telescope. He was scanning the night sky with it, watching the stars and looking for comets. His search was yielding few results until his telescope spotted something making circles around the Earth, clearly trapped in its orbit. His telescope couldn't make out what it was, but it looked like some kind of meteor, shaped vaguely like a double helix. His telescope could barely follow its flight pattern as it soared over the man's head. Seconds after it had passed overhead, the man saw something drift down from the sky. It looked almost like a small leaf. When it landed in the man's hand, he realized that it wasn't a leaf. It was, in fact, a piece of flesh. The man, enthralled by this sudden find, reached for his magnifying glass. When he looked back, however, the flesh had disappeared from his hand. He looked frantically around for it, but it was nowhere to be found. He slammed his fist on his table in fury, only to have the table split in two instantly. The man stopped. He slowly looked at his hand that once held the flesh piece.

It was no longer a human hand.

His pinky and ring fingers seemed to have fused together, as did his index and middle fingers, leaving him with three fingers. The space between his fingers had begun widening, tearing the skin between his fingers. His fingers were now extending and arching back. The man let out a yell at this sight, looking frantically for his cell phone. Before he could grab it, his mutated hand suddenly grabbed him by his throat. He couldn't control his own hand. Its grip tightened around his neck, easily crushing his windpipe. The man was dead in seconds, his eyes rolled back in his head. As soon as his heart stopped, the mutation began crawling rapidly up his arm, disfiguring and contorting the rest of his body as it did. His arms, legs, and stomach began inflating like balloons. When his entire body was completely transmuted, his eyes, now pure white without pupils, burst open. He rose to his feet, now walking on his inflamed knuckles, and let out a roar that echoed across the night sky. Car alarms went off in the street below and disgruntled neighbors began shouting their heads off.

Someone burst in through the roof level's door to see what was going on. To their surprise, they found the rooftop was empty. Only a broken telescope and other callously discarded bits of equipment remained.


	6. Date with Destiny

**Chapter Five: The Date with Destiny.**

It was 8:02 PM the following Saturday. Grover and Abby were walking down the sidewalk, hand-in-hand. Grover looked at Abby and smiled. He couldn't believe that he was holding the hand of such a beautiful girl. A sudden gust of wind caused her jet-black hair to sway before drifting back down to her shoulders. He couldn't take his eyes off of her. Now, to him, 90% of humans looked the same. However, Abby looked significantly facially different than Miyuki or Ana. While Grover had never been outside of Japan, he could still tell that Abby wasn't from there. She turned her head and looked up at him, returning his smile.

"Grover…" she said, a slight trace of nervousness in her voice. "Thank you. I had a great time, and the food was delicious."

Grover smiled broadly. "You're welcome…" There was an awkward pause between them. Finally, Grover spoke. "…Well… let's get you back to your apartment."

They continued down the sidewalk, eventually coming to an alleyway.

"C'mon, we'll cross through here," said Grover.

"No! Let's go around," Abby replied. "People usually get mugged in this alleyway!"

"Don't worry, I'll protect you!" Grover said in a triumphant voice.

"Ooh, I feel safe now!" Abby replied, laughing playfully.

The two of them made their way through the alleyway, Abby clinging to Grover's arm. As they walked, a noise suddenly caught Abby's attention. It sounded like a faint snarl. She stopped walking, catching Grover's attention.

"What? What's wrong?" he asked her.

"I… don't know," Abby replied nervously. "I thought I heard something… never mind."

Grover had an uneasy expression. He could take down a mugger without much difficulty, but Abby's reaction led him to believe that this was something quite different. He hurried her along as they neared the end of the alleyway, when a sinister sound caught both of their attentions. It came from above. It sounded like something large was moving quickly on the rooftops. It was fast and stealthy, leading Grover to come to a single conclusion.

"Let's get the hell out of here. It must be a Xenomorph," he said to Abby. Sam never had gotten around to rounding up the Xenomorphs brought to Earth by the Visitors as muscle that could not be traced back to them. Grover knew that the gun that he kept hidden in his coat would be little help against a Xenomorph, and if his prediction was correct, they had to get away from this alleyway fast;

Grover could feel Abby shivering as she huddled closer to him. If it was a Xeno, he had to get her out of here. Alone, he could outrun pretty much anything, but with Abby's life on the line too, he couldn't get very reckless. At that moment, he heard something clatter in the trashcans behind him. Immediately, he whirled around, drawing his gun from his coat and pointing it in the direction of the sound. Abby peered over his shoulder to see what it was. The following seconds felt like hours as Grover's heart began beating out of his chest. Finally, the culprit stepped into the moonlight. It was merely a small black cat, searching for a bite to eat. Grover resumed his normal breathing and his gun disappeared under his trench coat again.

Grover knelt down in front of the cat, holding his hand out to it. The feline began slowly approaching Grover, when suddenly its large, green eyes widened. Its pupils dilated and it started hissing. Grover pulled his hand back, but noticed that the cat wasn't making eye contact with him. The cat hissed and snarled, all while backing away from Grover. Finally, after swiping the air a few times, it just turned tail and ran. Grover turned to look at Abby with a puzzled expression, but she was facing the other way, not moving a muscle. Grover touched her arm. She was shaking uncontrollably and her skin had gone icy cold. Grover stood up to look at Abby. Her mouth was wide open and her eyes were pointed directly at something above them. Grover slowly looked up. As soon as his eyes met what Abby's had, his pupils dilated just as the equally aware cat's had, and he felt his blood go icy cold.


	7. Brute

**Chapter Six: Brute**

Suspended over the alleyway above Grover and Abby was one of the most monstrous things Grover had ever seen. It looked like a gigantic pile of animated human flesh, with dark gray and pink coloration all over its hideous, vein-ridden body. Its head resembled a human's, but horrifically deformed. It kept itself suspended over them using its pair of long, massive, abnormally muscular arms. Its legs were dangling beneath it, and were noticeably small. It had strange, yellow coloration just before its shoulder joints, but for the most part had a discolored human skin tone. Its stomach was bulging and veiny and seemed to be the only part of it that wasn't covered in a kind of armored exoskeleton that was ridden with spikes. Grover was now as frozen in terror as Abby. He didn't dare move. That massive brute's white, pupil-less eyes were fixated on the two of them. Grover knew this thing could drop down on them any second.

He slowly reached for Abby's hand. She was still shaking. He grasped her hand softly. She turned quickly to look at Grover. He could see the terror in her eyes. Grover began thinking quickly. In the alley, they were sitting ducks. They had to get into the open. This thing couldn't be very fast given its size. Grover looked into Abby's eyes and motioned toward the opposite end of the alleyway. She seemed to understand. Grover mouthed the word "one". Abby responded by nervously mouthing the word "two". They waited no more than a second before taking off in the opposite direction of the monster. Grover didn't dare look back. He could hear the creature was after them but still hanging onto the rooftops. Grover's hearing must have been incapacitated out of terror, because he could've sworn that he heard the creature's snarls growing louder. He and Abby were only a few feet from the exit when the monster suddenly dropped down in front of them, growling viciously. Grover was speechless. Either dragging Abby along with him slowed him down more than he'd anticipated, or this thing was much faster than he'd anticipated. The monster roared at the two of them. It was walking on its two massive fists like a gorilla. Without warning, it charged. Grover, thinking fast, shoved Abby to one side. She hit the wall behind her. She was dazed, but safe. Grover was barely able to sidestep to evade the brute's charge. It stopped when it realized it had missed and came to a screeching halt.

Grover looked to the sky and yelled something in ancient Xilian. In the seconds before the monster charged again, nothing happened. Whatever Grover had attempted didn't show any signs of effectiveness. The brute charged Grover again, this time reaching him without difficulty and grabbing him in its massive hands. Grover could barely move in this thing's grasp. He could feel his bones cracking. He was barely able to squeeze one hand out of its grip and reach into his trench coat pocket. As soon as his hand felt it, he whipped the gun out of pocket and pointed it at the brute's head. Now barely able to breathe, he pulled the trigger with whatever strength he had left.

Clearly asphyxiation had messed up Grover's vision, as he completely missed the creature's head. The laser bullet instead struck its yellow shoulder joint of the same arm that currently compressed Grover's body. The enraged beast recoiled back. Unexpectedly, the arm fell to the ground, severed from its body. Its hand loosened and Grover's mangled body rolled out of it. Abby's hands covered her mouth. Tears were forming in her eyes. She didn't even notice a pair of vestigial-looking arms sprouting from the beast's chest. Using them as support, the brute turned its attentions toward Abby. She looked anxiously at Grover's body. He wasn't moving. The beast was limping toward Abby, snarling softly. Abby was too paralyzed with fear to move. Before long, it was about one and a half arms' length away from Abby. She could smell its breath. It reeked of rotten, decaying flesh.

The beast crept closer towards Abby. However, when it crossed the threshold of about five feet, it recoiled. Abby looked puzzled. She began walking slowly towards the creature. Surprisingly, it backed away from her as she got closer, maintaining the five foot distance. Suddenly, as it drew back further, it let out a loud roar and reared back. The sound of flesh severing sounded twice and the beast fell on its back, knocking it unconscious. Behind it, Grover was sitting up with his gun pointed at it. He'd been able to shoot off its legs while it was distracted with Abby. Abby breathed a sigh of relief at both her safety and Grover's. The wind had begun picking up behind Abby. It was growing stronger at a surprisingly fast rate. She turned around and froze. Something large was making its way towards her. Grover, however, didn't seem threatened. As the large being made its way into the dim light, Abby's expression of fear turned to one of confusion. This being looked, at first glance, like some kind of large reptile, however, it had the frame of a bird as well as a pair of leathery wings. It leaned close to Abby, breathing heavily. She wasn't afraid. She'd heard about ikran from Grover. Grover approached it, smiling.

"Abby, meet Mirza. Mirza, Abby."

Mirza snorted in Abby's face, blowing her hair back.

"Listen, boy," Grover said to Mirza. "Get Abby here to safety. This monster isn't finished yet."

Abby whirled around to look at Grover. "No! What about you?"

"I can't let you get hurt," Grover replied. "I have to put this thing down quickly before-"

The brute was stirring. It was growling faintly and starting to lift itself up by its arms. Grover, without warning, picked Abby up and lifted her onto Mirza's back.

"He'll get you home safely. I'm really sorry the night had to end this way, but I'll see you tomorrow… hopefully."

Mirza spread his wings and prepared to take off. Before he did, Abby leaned over, grasped Grover's head and pulled him into a kiss. When it ended, she smiled at him and said "For luck." Grover was awestruck. He wanted to say something, but Mirza had already taken to the skies. Abby watched as Grover got further and further away until the clouds shrouded him completely.

Grover turned to face the beast, only to be grabbed by its second, bulky arm and thrown to the other side of the alleyway. He hit the ground hard, but recovered surprisingly quickly. He pointed his gun at the brute as its smaller arms began pulling open a hole in its stomach. To Grover's surprise, a hideous ball of flesh burst from the hole at Grover. He dove out of the way, narrowly avoiding it. He pointed his gun and fired several more rounds at the beast, but none of them seemed to be effective. Just then, he remembered what he'd seen before shooting its legs off. The beast's back had a yellow coloration, just like the shoulder joint that he'd severed. Grover now realized what he had to do. He poised himself and took off running directly towards the immobile beast. It continued firing the organic bombs at an alarming rate at Grover. He was quick enough to narrowly dodge them, luckily. Finally, Grover reached the beast's position. With all of his leg power, he jumped over the flailing monster. It swung its massive arm at him, which normally would've meant certain death for Grover, but, miraculously, he was able to use it as a platform to jump off of. Grover landed safely behind the brute and shot it point blank in the back. The creature let out a roar of agony and, finally, slumped on the ground, motionless.

Grover exhaled deeply. He put away his gun and began limping out of the alleyway in the direction of their apartment. He really needed a beer.


	8. A Bad Feeling

**Chapter Seven: A Bad Feeling.**

It was almost midnight when Grover reached the apartment. Everyone was still there, talking amongst themselves. X was the first to notice Grover walk in.

"Hey, buddy! How was the date?" he asked him.

"Great," replied Grover. "Except for when we got attacked by some freaky alien creature."

"You sure you weren't just looking in a mirror?" Zan asked him, laughing hysterically like he'd just made the funniest joke of all time.

Grover raised an eyebrow at Zan. "How drunk is he?" he asked X.

"Extremely," X replied.

Grover smirked to himself. "But no, it was a real freak. It nearly killed us!"

Sam entered the room. It seemed like he always showed up just when his knowledgeability was needed most. "Freaky aliens, huh?" he asked Grover. "Well describe it to me."

So Grover did. With immense detail. He told Sam about the beast's massive, gorilla-like appearance and about its grotesque appearance. He described its deformed, misshapen appearance and its means of attacking them. Finally, he told them how he managed to kill it. When Grover's story was over, Sam had gone white as a sheet.

"Oh no…" he said to himself as he hurried towards the door. "Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no…"

Everyone was puzzled. Sam almost never panicked in any situation, but Grover's descriptions seemed to strike a nerve of his. His hand was shaking as it reached for the door handle.

"Sam… what's wrong?" Grover asked him, just as nervous himself.

Before Sam opened the door, he turned around quickly. "Wait, you didn't notice Abby acting strange after you got attacked, did you?"

"Besides the usual panic at the sight of a creature like that, no," Grover replied. "Why?"

Innumerable thoughts rushed through Sam's head. _"Hmm… maybe the M-Base? I don't know…"_ He then spoke. "Okay, good. Just keep her safe, alright?"

Grover had a quizzical expression on his face. "What are you talking about, Sam?" he asked. "Do you know what that thing was?"

Sam's expression darkened. "Yes, unfortunately," he replied. "Its kind killed one of my best friends."

No one got a chance to say anything else before Sam rushed out the door.

"Ok, what is going on?" X asked the others.

"I don't know," Kendra replied. "But I do not like the feeling of it…"


	9. Return to the Alley

Chapter Eight: Return to the Alley.

Abby sat in her apartment, huddled in the corner of her bedroom. She looked towards the wall opposite where she was sitting. The wall was covered in pictures of her family. One photograph was of herself as an infant. She was in the arms of a smiling man. He had short black hair and bluish green eyes. There were many scars apparent on his face as well. Abby stared at the picture for a few moments as tears ran down her face. There was a small, gray, cone-shaped pendant around her neck. She clutched it in her hand, closing her tear-ridden eyes.

* * *

><p>Sam stood in front of the entrance to the very same alleyway where Grover and Abby were attacked. He walked a few feet and came across the body of the creature Grover killed. He turned it over and saw its horrific face.<p>

"As I predicted," Sam thought. "A Brute. I wonder how many there are now…"

Just then, he stood quickly. He'd just heard some kind of unusual chatter emanating from behind the trashcans and various boxes. He drew from his belt a weapon of some kind. It was not a gun. It had a trigger and a large handle by which Sam held it. However, instead of a barrel, the device had a large, cartridge-shaped frontal blade. Sam could see, behind the boxes, a small-sized creature skulking. He loaded a six-round battery into the weapon and pointed it toward the creature. Three blue laser reticules locked onto the target.

"Come on out, little guy…" Sam said to the creature. His finger was on the trigger and he prepared to fire.

Just then, without warning, something latched itself onto his back, clawing and scratching at him. Sam grabbed the being with his free hand and held it out in front of him. It resembled a small child, but deformed. Its skin was pale white and its fingers and thumb had fused together, now lengthened into stiff, bony claws. Its face was greatly deformed as well. It was without lips or a nose and its eyes appeared to have atrophied into their sockets. The creature snarled and squealed ferociously, swiping its claws at Sam. He was not intimidated. Sam gripped his weapon and swung it at the creature with all of his strength. It killed the demon child on contact as it let out a childlike scream. The creature hiding behind the boxes now made its move. It leapt out from its hiding place, claws bared, at Sam. Sam now aimed his weapon again and pulled the trigger. Out of the blade burst a horizontal bolt of ionized plasma energy. It struck the creature in the torso, slicing it in half as it shrieked like its comrade.

"Now where's the rest of the Pack?" Sam thought to himself. Sure enough, it seemed like the Pack was only two in number, which was good for him. He knew them to be deadly in large numbers. Just then, he heard what sounded like a deranged human scream from the other side of the alleyway. He looked in its direction and saw yet another creature come tearing after him. It had the body of a human female, only horrible mutilated and with large bladed arms protruding from its shoulders. Plus its jaw was mutated, hanging down from its face. It was approaching Sam at an extremely rapid speed. Sam barely had time to react. However, he was not at all fazed by this. He held out his left hand, brandishing an unusual module attached to it. From this module, a blue ball of energy formed in his hand, which he then proceeded to hurl at the approaching creature. As soon as it made contact with the thing, time seemed to slow down around it. The creature was covered with an unusual blue hue as it now moved in slow motion towards Sam. He aimed his weapon and fired off three more plasma bolts. They struck the creature's bladed arms and its legs, severing them on contact. It fell to the ground instantly, not moving as the time dilation faded.

"I never liked Spitters," Sam remarked to himself. "Always catching me off guard with their speed. Thank Eywa for Stasis."

Sam gritted his teeth and surveyed the dead creatures all around him. It looked to him like a small family, consisting of a father (the Brute), a mother (the Spitter), and two children (the Pack). He needed to find out where the infection began. So far, he could think of only one person who could know anything about it.


	10. Isaac Clarke

**Chapter Nine: Isaac Clarke.**

There was a knock on the door of Abby's apartment. She opened her eyes and slowly rose off of the ground where she'd been sitting for the past hour. She left her bedroom and walked to the door, slowly opening it. A tall, bald man was standing in the doorway. He had a quizzical expression on her face. Abby hadn't realized that her cheeks were covered in black tearstains from her makeup running.

"C-can I help y-you?" she asked the man. He could tell from her shaky voice that she'd been crying.

"My name's Sam," the man replied. "I'm the father of Grover's best friend, X."

Abby, who hadn't been making eye contact with the man, now suddenly lifted her head. She'd heard that name before, and it was a name that she'd been waiting to hear for years. But she acted ambivalent about it.

"Oh yeah, Grover told me about you. Come in."

Sam stepped into her apartment as she closed and locked the door behind her.

"I had a few questions for you…" Sam began.

"It's about the Necromorphs, isn't it?" Abby interrupted.

Sam stopped suddenly and looked at her with an expression of surprise. How could she already know? Unless…

Before he could think any further of it, Abby burst into tears. "I KNEW I WASN'T SAFE FROM MY FATHER'S CURSE! I KNEW HE COULDN'T PROTECT ME!"

She collapsed on her couch, sobbing hysterically. Sam sat down next to her and put his arm around her.

"Your father protecting you? What are you talking about?"

Abby wiped away her tears and turned to look at Sam. "I've been waiting to meet you for years," she explained. "You knew my father like my mother knew him. You were best friends with him. Before… his accident."

Sam now realized with whom he was speaking. He knew there was something about this girl that he found familiar. When he was in the Xilian Black Ops in his youth, he was involved in a mission to a human space station with a CEC systems engineer named Isaac Clarke. Almost 20 years prior, the human civilian space station known as the Sprawl was host to what was known by most as the Site 12 Marker, a man-made replica of the dangerous alien artifact known as the Black Marker, before it was destroyed by Clarke along with the entire Sprawl. Twenty years later, the CEC had built a new civilian station on the same moon of Saturn, Titan. However, the remnants of the Site 12 Marker still present on Titan served as a homing beacon for the Gray Marker, a Xilian-made Marker with even more destructive capabilities than its predecessors. Sam's elite team was sent to assist Clarke in containing and destroying the outbreak caused by the Gray Marker. However, the Marker's ability to cause them hallucinations ultimately resulted in their failure. The station was destroyed once again but the Gray Marker went unaccounted for. Now a fugitive from the law of Earth after destroying the Station, Clarke went into hiding with Sam and his wife Coraline on Planet X. However, he was later killed in a skirmish with the authorities pursuing Cora. Sam distinctly remembered Isaac's dying wish. He asked Sam to tell his wife and daughter of his fate next time he visited Earth. Sam had done so, but his daughter was no older than Chester when he did. Now everything was making sense. Why the Brute had attacked Grover and Abby and why she knew so much about it.

"You… you're Isaac's daughter? …Abby?" Sam asked her.

Abby's sobs intensified and she started crying into Sam. He held her closer as she cried.

"It's okay," Sam said. "I know that you're sad, but I promise, as Isaac's best friend, I will take care of you and make sure you're safe. No Necromorph will get near you."

Abby smiled and hugged Sam. "I know I can trust you, Sam," she said. "It's just that there are people who want me… to find out what I know about the Marker."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "The Marker? So then you know?"

Abby nodded. Sam paused for a minute, thinking quickly. If Abby knew anything of worth about the Marker, she could potentially help him figure out the root of the infection. He then spoke.

"Come back with me. I think we should talk of the details…"


	11. Tripod

**Chapter Ten: Tripod**

The others at the apartment were anxiously awaiting Sam's return. All of them had the same thing on their minds; what had Sam so spooked? It took a lot to scare Sam, so if he was as worried as he looked, it couldn't mean anything good for them.

"What do you suppose his problem is?" X asked Kendra.

"I don't know," she replied. "But I think he's hiding something from us."

"So he's pretty much being the same old Sam?" Grover asked.

"This is no time for jokes, Grover," X replied. "If my father is spooked, this is a serious situation."

"I agree," Grover replied. "It is serious. Super serious."

"SHUT UP!" Kendra yelled.

Grover meekly backed down. "Sorry…"

Before they could dwell on it any further, the entire wall suddenly imploded on them with a massive crash, knocking them all flying. Ezio and Chester started wailing in the other room. X recovered first and looked toward the massive hole now evident in the wall. He watched as what looked like a gigantic arm grabbed a hold of the side of the wall. A second soon followed it. On the other end of these arms, a large behemoth pulled itself up and into the room. Upon emerging, it was apparent that it had three legs, two from its former arms and one from its fused together legs. Its skin was pale and it had vaguely had the feature of a human woman. Grover was beginning to have flashbacks upon noticing these features.

Kendra jumped to her feet, staring at this beast in shock. "OH MY EYWA, WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" Grover yelled in response. "BUT I THINK IT'S THE SAME KIND OF CREATURE THAT ATTACKED ABBY AND I!"

X whirled his head to look at Grover in rage. "YOU DIDN'T TELL US THAT YOU FOUGHT A NECROMORPH!"

Grover stared back in shock. "WAIT, YOU ACTUALLY KNOW WHAT THESE THINGS ARE?"

"YEAH, UNLIKE YOU, I ACTUALLY STUDIED AT THE ACADEMY!"

"AND LOOK HOW FAR IT'S GOTTEN YOU!" Grover retorted loudly over the deafening roars of this creature.

"SHUT UP BOTH OF YOU!" Kendra screamed angrily. "THIS IS NOT THE TIME! X! YOU REMEMBER HOW TO KILL THESE, RIGHT?"

"OF COURSE I DO!" X yelled back. He dashed into the other room and began rummaging through his closet. In the meantime, this three-legged creature had extended what seemed to be a bladed tongue from its mouth. Dangling in the middle of it was a yellow sack that seemed to have the arms and legs of an infant hanging from it. The creature lashed this tongue at Kendra first. She dove out of the way and drew her sword from inside her trench coat. The tongue was driven into the ground where she'd stood. She gripped her sword with two hands and swung, severing the tongue's tip. The creature screeched in fury, but suddenly a second bladed tip extended from the tongue stump in its mouth.

"SINCE WHEN CAN THEY DO THAT?" X yelled, who had just returned with an unusual module attached to his left arm.

Grover drew duel laser pistols from his coat and opened fire on the monster. It barely seemed to notice the laser bolts striking its body.

"YOU IDIOT!" X yelled to him. "AIM FOR THE YELLOW SACK ON ITS TONGUE!"

"I'M ON IT!" Kendra shouted. She ran up the wall next to the monster and propelled herself off of it, her sword at the ready. Before she could deliver a blow, the monster swung one of its arms at her. It struck Kendra in the stomach, knocking the wind of out her and slamming her into a wall. When she collapsed on the ground, she was unconscious.

"WE'RE GONNA DIE!" a panicked Grover screamed.

"SHUT UP AND SHOOT IT!" X yelled.

But Grover was too panicked to shoot straight. The creature grabbed Grover with its 'leg arm' and began dragging him across the floor. It latched its free arms onto the outside of the building and began carrying him with it as it scaled the side of the apartment building. Grover, who was now dangling upside down, looked up to see the plummet to the street below.

"I'M GOING TO THROW UP, AND THEN I'M GONNA DIE!" he shrieked, still peppering the impervious Necromorph with laser bullets. Finally, out of pure luck, a laser bolt struck the yellow sack. The tongue was severed instantly. The beast shrieked in agony and released its grip on Grover. The last thing Grover saw was the agonized creature climbing onto the rooftop and disappearing from sight as he plummeted twenty stories toward the ground, screaming in terror.

X could hear Grover's shrieks from inside. He took a look outside of the gaping hole in the wall and saw Grover freefalling from the top of the building. From the module that he'd equipped to his arm, he hurled a blue ball of energy out of the massive gap in the wall. With Kaiser precision, he timed it so the ball burst just as Grover passed over it. Now coated in a blue hue, Grover's fall had suddenly been halted. He was now falling in slow motion, his screams slowed down as well. As he passed in front of their apartment at an incredibly slow speed, X grabbed Grover by the arm and pulled him safely into the room. As the time dilation dissipated, Grover's slow motion screams returned to their original frequency, eventually dying down as he realized that he was safe.

X looked at him, smiling smugly. "You done?"

"I… think so," was Grover's answer.


	12. It's Official

**Chapter Eleven: It's Official**

The door opened and Sam entered the room with Abby behind him. He hadn't expected the sight that met him upon walking in. A gigantic hole was, once again, evident in the apartment wall. Kendra was picking herself off of the ground and the kids were sobbing in the other room. Not to mention three giant indents in the floor that looked almost like giant footprints and a fourth that looked like a giant blade had been stabbed through it.

"What in the name of Eywa happened?" he asked.

"Necromorph Tripod," X replied. Abby began shuddering at the sound of that name. Grover then caught sight of her behind Sam.

"Abby! Are you alright?" he said as he got up to kiss her. She smiled and hugged him.

"I'm fine, Grover!" she insisted as Grover surveyed her entire body looking for injuries.

"We have to look after her," Sam explained to the others. "She knows too much about things that nobody else should know, alright?"

The group concurred. However, their concurrence was shortly interrupted by Ezio and Chester's sobbing. Kendra, who had recovered by now, ran to their room in a hurry. They could hear her trying to hush up the kids.

"It's okay, it's okay. Shhh, shhh. X, I need some help!"

X ran off quickly to join Kendra. Abby was still holding onto Grover tightly. She leaned close to his ear and whispered.

"You're very brave, Grover…"

Grover laughed haughtily. "Nahhhh... I… wait, really?"

"You actually beat that thing. That's brave," Abby replied.

Grover began turning red. He laughed slightly. "Well… you know. It was nothing…"

Abby giggled in an unusually provocative way and kissed Grover passionately.

Sam groaned with irritation. "For the love of Eywa, get a room."

Grover looked at Sam then back at Abby with a smile. "…Okay." He lifted a laughing Abby up in his arms and carried her off toward his dorm. Sam rolled his eyes and walked toward the still prevalent hole in the wall, cringing as he thought about how much this would cost them. There was a flash of light behind him and he saw Milo standing behind Sam with a sniper rifle under his arm.

"Nice shot back there, Milo," Sam commented. "Of course, Abby thinks Grover shot the Tripod."

Milo laughed. "He couldn't have shot it to save his life."

Sam smirked. "It's funny because it's true."

X and Kendra joined them, now with Chester and Ezio in their respective arms.

"That was a close one back there," X said.

"Where do you suppose that thing came from?" Milo asked Sam.

"Well, there aren't many different places where it could have come from," Sam replied. "And if I'm right, we're going to have one hell of a crisis on our hands."

There was a moment of solemn silence between the Xilians, but it was short-lived, as the familiar sound of creaking bedsprings had begun emanating from Grover's dorm. X and Milo burst out laughing, as did Zan, who'd just returned to the apartment and likely had no idea what they were laughing at. Kendra and Sam just exchanged looks, and then rolled their eyes, sighing.

"HE IS ONE LUCKY SON OF A—" began X.

He was able to stop himself just as Kendra shot him a death glare. Her look was one that said "Didn't I tell you not to say that?"

"Ummm… bastard?"

The laughter soon resumed where they'd left off, while Sam muttered the word "Dumbasses…" to himself.


	13. The Marker

**Chapter Twelve: The Marker.**

Three days went by quickly. Grover and Abby's relationship had reached its pinnacle and neither of them could've been happier. Zan and Milo had to endure Grover constantly talking to them about how Abby was "the one". Miyuki and Abby hit it off well, and soon, Abby was almost considered part of the family. Unfortunately, there had been more Necromorph sightings around the city. Through Gordon, the group was able to keep it from reaching the public, but it was getting to be a pain for them. Putting these things down was difficult for them to do, except, naturally, for Sam. However, it was becoming difficult for Sam to track whatever was causing this infection.

One occurrence that was still being investigated by the group was the day X went missing. Grover and Abby were left to watch over the kids while the Xilians searched for him. The eventually found him wandering through a forest, not remembering how he got there. He claimed that a voice in his head had led him there. It hadn't happened again since, thankfully. However, Grover was no longer on Kendra's good side, nor was Abby for that matter, after Kendra walked in on them in bed while they were supposed to be watching the kids. Grover and Kendra hadn't spoken since, much to Grover's remorse.

Late one night, Grover decided to take a walk in the woods while he tried to figure out how to make it up to Kendra. Being a Xilian of Na'vi descent, he always found himself at ease in the forest. It helped clear his mind as he thought.

"_Eywa, I am so STUPID! I never thought of Kendra, only Abby last night! I need to sort out my priorities. How can I ever get her to trust me again?"_

He soon found himself in a wide-open field. From here, he had a clear view of the night sky, lit up by the stars. Grover felt extremely calm here. He thought about the possibility of bringing Abby there one night. As he stared up at the night sky, something caught his eye. It looked like a shooting star, passing overhead. It was glowing brightly in the distance with a long tail behind it.

"_Well, isn't that pretty…" _Grover thought to himself.

Just then, the tail vanished. The meteor had stopped moving. Grover looked at it curiously. Something else then happened that caught his attention. The meteor was suddenly starting to glow brighter. It seemed to be expanding in the night sky and becoming so bright that Grover had to squint his eyes as he stared at it._ "Maybe it's exploding in space," _he thought to himself. At that moment, he realized what was happening. The meteor wasn't exploding. It was growing brighter and larger for an entirely different reason.

It was headed straight towards him.

Grover turned tail and ran as fast as Xilianly possible. Despite Grover's natural swiftness, the meteor seemed to be immensely bigger and wider than he'd anticipated. He could feel the heat emanating from it on his back. It was getting dangerously closer and he was unsure that, at its size, he could get far enough away. Grover knew he had little time remaining. With all of his leg strength, he pushed himself off of the ground and dove for cover amongst the trees. As he hit the ground with his head covered, all he could hear was the ground and earth exploding behind him.

When he finally rose, Grover could hear nothing but ringing in his ears like someone had dropped a grenade nearby.

"_What in the…"_ he thought to himself. _"What was that? And how did it just suddenly change direction like that?"_

As his hearing slowly returned, he got up and looked behind him. A massive cloud of dust shrouded whatever had just hit the ground behind him. Trees were knocked over like toothpicks and there were ashes falling from the sky. At least they looked like ashes. But even Grover knew that ashes typically weren't flesh colored.

The dust blotted out the moon and made it difficult for him to see. Slowly, Grover made his way through the dust storm with his arms out in front of him, feeling around for the meteor. As he walked forward, his hands touched something. It was a hard and rigid object. As the dust cleared, he could make out the surface of it. It was a light shade of gray and had strange markings all over it. He slowly scanned the meteor down and up… and up, and up, and up, and up. As he stood back to get a better view, he was at a loss for words. This thing was at least 200 feet tall and 50 feet wide. As he scanned its length, he noticed that the top of this thing made it look almost like a giant DNA double helix that he'd seen on posters at the academy. Another unusual thing about it was it looked almost like people had been carving pieces off of it. There were small chunks missing from the base of it, and the indents that were left were glowing faintly.

"_What the…" _Grover thought. "_What is this thing?"_

As Grover neared it once again, he heard someone call his name. He turned around quickly to see who it was, but nobody was there. Yet, he heard it again. And again.

"Who's there?" he asked.

"_Grover…" _said the voice. Grover felt like he knew the voice, but he couldn't figure out from where. It was a woman's voice. _"Grover… make us whole…"_

"Who are you?" Grover said loudly. "How do you know my name?"

There was a brief pause before the voice spoke again.

"_Grover… make us whole… Do this, and we will give you what we offer…"_

"W-what do you offer?" Grover asked.

"…_Eternal… life…" _was the response.

Now Grover was afraid. He began walking swiftly away from the meteor. The voice seemed to have gone silent.

"_What is this?" _Grover thought to himself in frustration. _"I know! Sam will know what it is!"_

Grover teleported on the spot and re-appeared in the apartment building. X was the only one there.

"What's up, Grover?" he asked him. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Yeah… more like heard…" Grover muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing. Where's Sam?"

"Still out trying to find the source of the Necros. What's wrong?"

"Urrrgh…" muttered Grover. Sam was never there when you needed him. "Ok, maybe _you_ can help me. Follow me, I need to show you what I found."

Grover teleported, with X close behind. They reappeared back in the forest, only a few feet from the massive crater in the ground. Grover walked X to the edge of it and held his arm out towards the meteor still embedded in the ground.

"Well? Any idea what this thing is?" Grover asked X.

X stared at the huge, gray meteor. He surveyed it from top to bottom. Suddenly, unbeknownst to Grover, X's pupils shrunk. The voice from the other night had suddenly returned. It was speaking to him at that very moment, and it had just given him an order.

"It almost hit me a minute ago, and when I got near it, I started hearing-"

Grover's sentence was cut short. The horrific cracking sound of something impacting his head echoed into the night. His eyes rolled in the back of his head and he collapsed on the ground, unconscious. X lowered and dropped the blood-soaked rock in his hand and walked past Grover's unconscious body. He approached the meteor with an expression of awe on his face. Finally, X spoke. His voice had suddenly become dark and chilling.

"Finally… I found the Marker…"


	14. Coraline

**Chapter Thirteen: Coraline.**

X came closer to the massive, Gray Marker. The closer he got to it, he began to hear sounds in his head that almost resembled people chanting. However, it wasn't in any language that he was familiar with (which was limited to Japanese, Xilian, and Na'vi). X removed his leather glove and slowly reached out his hand to the Marker. As soon as his hand touched the Marker's hard surface, X's eyes widened. Everything around him was seemingly evaporating before his eyes. The forest vanished before his eyes, the trees collapsing and fading away. He saw massive buildings like the ones in Tokyo seemingly rise up from the ground, all around him. The grass had become pavement. At first, all seemed well. It looked like an ordinary day. The people were going about their business, seemingly paying X no heed.

Just then, everybody turned their attentions to the sky. The sun had been blotted out by something… Something that was approaching the ground extremely fast. X watched as it hit the ground with a massive explosion. A huge, red shockwave swept across the city, blinding X. When he regained his clear vision, X was horrified by what he saw. The city was in ruins. Fires blazed all around him as the buildings crumbled. He could hear faint screams in the distance, but it was difficult to hear over the snarls and roars of the Necromorphs swarming all over the city, killing and destroying everything in sight. And, in the very middle of all of this chaos, was the Marker.

Thoughts were rushing through X's head. How did this happen? Where were the EDF and his... friends? As if answering his question, X felt something pulling him through the streets at an extremely fast pace. Like he was moving through a wormhole or some kind of tunnel. When it stopped, he was standing a few feet from a man's corpse. As he moved closer, X realized that it was, in fact, Sam who was lying dead on the ground, his chest cavity ripped open. A large group of Necromorphs came darting up to Sam's body and began feasting greedily on his open chest. X, now quite ill, felt himself get pulled through the city again, this time stopping in front of Kendra. Her face was covered in blood and she was pulling herself weakly out of a pile of rubble. When the lower half of her body had made it out, X found that it was missing, severed at Kendra's middle. She raised her head and an expression of terror appeared on her face. X turned to look and saw two small beings approaching her. One was crawling on all fours and the other was on two legs. When they came closer, X realized who they were: Chester, crawling on all fours, and Ezio, walking on two. They both looked horribly injured, but alive. Kendra, however, did not look at all happy to see them. Tears were rolling down her terrified face. It took X a minute, but he soon realized why.

He watched in shock as Chester's back muscles and bones split apart and from his back. Several small, sticky tentacles with suction cups extended from Chester's abdomen, lifting his body a foot off the ground. From his open back, three long, ropey tentacles uncoiled from inside his pelvic area. They were armed with sharp barbs that were now pointed at Kendra. Ezio raised his hands, which X now saw were no longer hands. They were now bony claws, growing from the stumps on his hand that used to be fingers. His eyes were virtually gone, as were his nose and lips. X barely recognized his own son. Ezio let out a high-pitched shriek and raised his claws over Kendra. Chester's tentacles were positioned with the barbs pointed at Kendra, his empty, white eyes glaring at her.

X couldn't bear to watch any more. He felt himself being pulled again, this time backwards. As the scene faded, he watched the blazing fires disappear and the buildings sink into the ground. The Necromorphs faded into nothingness, but not before X got a glimpse of Ezio begin swinging his claws viciously and Chester start driving all three of his tentacles down in front of him. Kendra's agonizing screams were the last thing X heard as he wrenched his hand off of the Marker's surface.

X was back in the forest now, but had fallen to his knees, shaking uncontrollably and trying to manage his breathing. His face was covered in a mixture of sweat and tears.

"Oh my Eywa…" he said to himself through his panting. "W-what have I done…?"

X didn't seem to realize at first that none of it was real. The images that he saw were so horrifying that, for a moment, he didn't want to believe that there could've been illusions so terrible. As he rose to try and regain his composure, his head rose to look at the Marker.

There was somebody standing there, in front of the Marker.

They had begun walking slowly in his direction. As the moonlight shone above the towering Marker, X could vaguely make out this person's appearance. It was a woman. She had short, black hair down to her shoulders and a very slim figure. She was dressed in standard, leather Xilian clothing. The most noticeable thing about her was that her clothes were notably torn and her face was covered with blood.

X felt like he knew who she was. He'd seen her face somewhere before, but he couldn't recall where. Just then, it struck him. Sam kept a picture of this woman in his room back home. It was right on his night table next to his bed. Which could only mean that this woman was…

"M…mother?" X asked.

Sure enough, when she got close enough, X could tell it was she. Coraline leaned close to X and placed her hand on his cheek. She was vaguely see-through, but there.

"X…" she said softly, gazing into X's eyes. "You can't let them take it. Son... Don't let them take your precious Marker."

X backed away from her with an expression of terror on his face.

"No…" he said. "NO! YOU'RE DEAD! THIS CAN'T BE REAL!"

Coraline continued advancing on X as he tried to back away. "It is a gift my son; a gift to immortality. Don't let this slip by. Take it..."

She held out her hand to X. In it, a small, gray pendant formed. It was shaped in a double-helix shape, much like the Marker. As it formed in her hand, another chunk vanished from the Marker's surface. X took the pendant from Cora's hand, holding it out in front of him.

"As long as you have that, I'll always be with you, X," Cora said, smiling at him. X looked at Cora and, weakly, returned the smile. His mother was here, at last. He was finally speaking to the mother he'd never gotten to meet.

"But… you can't let them take the Marker," Cora went on. "If they do, they'll take me along with it. You can't let me down again, son… like you did before."

X suddenly broke down and fell to his knees. "NO! IT WASN'T MY FAULT! DAD SAID SO!"

Cora knelt down next to him, placing her hand on his shoulder.

"It was your fault, X," she replied. "You did it on purpose."

X broke down into hysterical sobs as he drove his fist into the dirt. "NOOO! I DIDN'T!"

"Don't let me down again, son," Cora said to him. "Embrace the power. And take control… Don't let them take the Marker… make us whole again…"

X slowly looked up again. Cora had vanished. It was just he and the Marker now. X lowered his head and the hysterical crying resumed.

After a few minutes, X finally rose to his feet. He was no longer crying. He, instead, had an expression of determination on his face. He tied the Marker pendant around his neck, then turned to look behind him. Grover was still lying, sprawled out on the ground with blood running from the back of his head. X held out his hand in front of him. Grover's body rose from the ground, his arms and legs still limp. X looked around curiously and saw a nearby lake. He waved his arm swiftly. Grover's body was suddenly flung through the air, landing directly into the lake with a loud splash. X watched contently as Grover's limp body drifted downstream and out of sight.

"So long… friend," X said. He turned the other way and vanished in a flash of light. When he re-appeared, he was in front of the entrance to their apartment. He tucked the Marker pendant under his shirt, then looked up toward the sky.

"I won't let you down, mother. Not like before…"

As X lowered his head and prepared to walk into the building, his eyes turned dark as night, and a smile grew on his lips.


	15. Consumed

**Chapter Fourteen: Consumed.**

Grover's eyes slowly blinked open. He was staring directly into sunlight. He squinted and sat up where he was lying. He was completely drenched with water, which he presumed came from a nearby lake. He'd been lying on the shore next to this lake. Grover rubbed the back of his head and felt a sudden stinging jolt. He brought his hand in front of his face and found it covered with blood.

"_Well…"_ he thought to himself. _"That's problematic."_

Grover rose to his feet and looked around. The Marker was nowhere in sight, nor was the crater or… X.

"_X? Where are you? Wait, where am I? Why am I all wet? Urggghh, I need to find Sam!"_

Grover teleported from the forest and re-appeared in the apartment with a flash of light; where Kendra and Abby were in the in the living room with the kids watching TV.

"KENDRA! ABBY!" he shouted. "I NEED YOUR HELP!"

Kendra groaned in exasperation. She was still peeved at Grover about the babysitting incident. "What is it, Grover?"

Abby suddenly gasped. "Oh my god, Grover! You're bleeding!"

"Never mind that," Grover replied. "Have you all seen X?"

"No, not since yesterday morning," Kendra replied. "He said he had something important to do and left."

"YESTERDAY MORNING?" Grover yelled in shock. "HOW LONG HAVE I BEEN OUT?"

A door opened on the other side of the room. Sam stepped into the room. "Three days," he answered for Grover. "Something's wrong, isn't it Grover?"

And thus, Grover began his long account of what had occurred in the forest; his discovery of the giant meteor, how it spoke to him, how he brought X to it, and then blacked out. When his tale was complete, Sam wasn't making eye contact with Grover. He was clearly extremely lost in thought.

"…A giant meteor shaped like a double helix?" Sam asked him. "And how tall was it, again?"

"I don't know; 200 feet at least."

Sam began rubbing the back of his neck. He knew very well what it was, but telling the others, especially Abby, would be a completely different matter.

"Weird thing is though, when it was shooting across the sky, it suddenly changed direction and headed towards me," Grover added. "Like it had a mind of its own or something."

"_Well, now we know where the infection came from, and why X wandered into those woods the other night…" _Sam thought to himself. He turned to look at Grover. "Did you touch it?" he asked him.

"For a second," Grover replied. "But I had my gloves on. I kept my distance when I started hearing voices in my head."

"_Voices…"_ Sam thought. "Grover, take me back to where you found it. Quickly!"

"Ok, ok! One second!" Grover teleported, followed quickly by Sam.

As soon as they were gone from the room, the door slammed open. Kendra and Abby turned to look and saw X standing in the doorway. The dim light in the hallway made it difficult to make out his face, but they could tell it was him..

"Oh, X! You're back!" Kendra said. "What were you doing?"

Abby looked at X with a suspicious expression. "Umm, what's with your hair?" she asked him. It was sticking upwards, rather than flat on his head like it usually was.

X raised his head slowly and smiled menacingly at the two of them. "Hello… girls…" he said, still retaining the sinister smile.

"Sweetie, are you alright?" Kendra asked X. "You were gone for so long."

"I'm fine…" X replied. "Just doing… stuff."

Abby looked quizzically at something dangling from X's neck. "What's that?" she asked him, approaching him to try and get a look at it.

Immediately, X tucked the pendant under his shirt. An expression of fury emerged on his face. "GET AWAY FROM ME! IT'S MINE!"

Abby pulled back quickly. "Hey, I'm sorry! It's just that it looks just like my father's…" Before she could finish her sentence, X was up in her face, yelling angrily.

"IT'S MINE!" he shouted, not seeming to have heard what Abby had said. "I FOUND IT! No…. IT CAME TO ME!" He whirled around when he was done yelling at Abby, not saying another word.

Suddenly, Kendra realized what Sam had been so concerned about. She hadn't been listening when Grover told Sam his story, but now it was all making sense. The Necromorphs appearing in Tokyo; Grover almost getting hit by a giant meteor; X hearing voices and acting like this… these events weren't coincidences. It all pointed towards one possibility, and that possibility was dangling from X's neck.

"Oh dear love of Eywa…" Kendra said, her voice shaking. "IT'S THE MARKER!"

Abby let out a gasp of terror and hurried away from X, who was crouching on the ground, stroking the pendant in his hand. The voices in his head were speaking to him again. Kendra began slowly approaching X.

"Sweetie, listen to me…" she said. "You have to give that to Sam. It's dangerous."

X slowly turned his head to look at her. His eyes were bloodshot and he was sweating profusely. He turned back to the pendant. He could hear Cora's voice talking in his head.

"_She wants it for herself…" _Cora's voice said to X. _"Don't let her take it!"_

X's eyes turned a fiery crimson and he snarled like a wild animal. He rose quickly and whirled around to face Kendra. His arm followed through as he turned around, smacking Kendra across the face with the back of his hand. She fell to the ground, caught off guard by this attack. There were tears in her eyes as she looked up at X. He was glaring down at her with cold contempt.

"X, stop!" Abby shouted. "The Marker is controlling you!" X slowly turned his head to look at her. With a swift movement too fast for the naked eye, he was standing right in front of Abby, his back to her. Before Abby had any time to react, X was whirling his entire body around 180 degrees. His foot struck her directly in the face before she could make any effort to block it. Abby was sent rolling across the floor, eventually coming into contact with a solid object. The back of her head hit the wall and she went still on the floor.

X turned his attentions to Kendra, who was still trembling on the floor. He picked her up in his arms and teleported. When they re-appeared, they were in the very same forest where X had been the other day. X dropped Kendra on the ground, standing over her menacingly. Kendra was scared stiff. Normally, there were few enemies that she couldn't deal with. However, her own husband's sudden behavior was frightening her beyond belief. She knew very well that there was little that X wasn't capable of, and the look in his eyes was only worsening her fears.

"_My son…" _said Cora's voice in X's head. _"The Marker needs more victims. We cannot be made whole again without a host, and your sons are not enough."_

X, who was still towering over Kendra, now spoke.

"What would you desire of me, mother?"

Kendra looked at X with an expression of shock. "M-mother? X, who are you talking to?"

"_X…" _Cora's voice continued, clearly inaudible to Kendra's ears. _"You must make her pregnant and give the Marker a new host. Otherwise, we can never be made whole. The Marker demands young flesh. DO IT! NOW!"_

"Whatever you say, mother…" X replied. He began slowly approaching Kendra, drawing a coil of rope from his trench coat. Kendra, now in a panic, was desperately trying to get up and run for dear life, but X was upon her in seconds. Before long, Kendra was tied up and without any hope of escaping. The ropes were made on Planet X and prevented the bound from teleporting. X forced Kendra onto her back and mounted her, glaring ferociously into her eyes.

"The Marker demands new, young flesh…" he said, smiling. "You will bear a child to it… give it a child…"

Kendra's terror was so great that she could scarcely breath. The cold, utter malevolence in X's eyes was something terrible to behold. She was bound so tightly that she couldn't move a muscle. All she could do was scream.

"NO! NO! STOP! HELP! SOMEBODY, PLEASE HELP!"

X placed his hand over Kendra's mouth, muffling her screams. He smiled that wicked smile and let out a laugh. It was a laugh that Kendra had heard many times before. It was a high-pitched, crazed cackle; the kind of laugh that one hears from either a stereotypical wicked witch or a deranged torturer who gets off on one's pain. The last time Kendra had heard this laugh; it had been during their attempted conquest of planet Earth. X had been twisted and driven over the edge by outside forces, and now, Kendra felt like she was reliving that painful experience of watching X destroy himself. And, like last time, she could do nothing about it. All Kendra could do was cry as X leaned over her, laughing like a raving maniac.


	16. Into the Fire

**Chapter Fifteen: Into the Fire.**

Kendra's eyes were shut when the sound of a loud CRACK! resonate throughout the forest. X had heard it too. As well as felt it. A large, thick tree branch had just struck him in the back of the head. X whirled around furiously. Standing but a few feet away from him and Kendra were Sam, Grover, Milo, and Zan. Sam pointed a finger defiantly at X and began to shout; but it wasn't in English or Japanese. It was a language that likely few Xilians still knew, one that had all but vanished after the exodus from Pandora.

"_DO ANYTHING TO THAT WOMEN AND I WILL SEND YOU TO HELL ALONG WITH YOUR MAKER!"_

Grover leaned over towards Zan. "Any idea what the hell he just said?"

X's eyes darkened to the point where you couldn't see his pupils. He roared loudly at Sam, but this wasn't an ordinary roar. It sounded more like X was screaming, but it was heavily distorted and warped. It sounded less like a feral animal's roar, but more like a demented yell. X's teeth were bared in this roar, but something was off about them. They were no longer human teeth. They had grown exponentially and looked more like fangs. When he roared, they stuck out almost an inch from his mouth.

"Okay… that's different…" said Grover.

Just then, a nearby yell resonated in everybody's ears. There were two human hikers standing nearby and had just witnessed the entire spectacle. Within seconds, X was upon them, the pendant around his neck was in his hand. They tried to run, but X pounced on one of them like a wild cat. The Xilians watched in shock as X raised his Marker pendant over his head. He drove it like a knife into the man's neck. He twisted it once or twice, then withdrew it. As X proceeded to do the same to the other hiker, Zan and Grover ran to Kendra, who was still tied up on the ground. Zan drew a small, portable buzz saw from his trench coat pocket and cut through the ropes with ease. Kendra was picked up and carried back to the others by her brother, still shaking uncontrollably. X had just finished stabbing the second hiker with his Marker necklace and was tying it back around his neck. Before Sam or any of the others could act, X had taken off into the forest, running on all fours like an animal.

"DAMN it!" shouted Milo. "We lost him!"

"That's not all…" said Zan.

The two hikers, now with punctures in their necks from X's pendant, were starting to writhe and wriggle on the ground. Agonized screams were bursting from their mouths and large, organic, bladed arms were bursting from their shoulders. Any recognizable facial features that they once had were literally falling from their faces and they were beginning to rise from the ground. Roaring like animals, they charged wildly at the Xilians, swinging their blade arms uncontrollably. The Xilians braced themselves for battle, when the sound of four, consecutive plasma bursts sounded. The arms and legs of the Necromorphs went flying in all directions, their mangled bodies falling to the ground in a heap. Sam lowered his weapon and turned his attentions to Kendra, who was sobbing uncontrollably into Zan. He looked at the dead Necromorphs and in the direction that X ran. Just then, his wrist device began beeping. He pressed a button and a holographic screen appeared in front of him. Ozaki was present on the screen.

"_Dad, we're got a situation on our hands!" _he said._ "You know those monsters that you said you saw in the city the other day? Well, they multiplied somehow. We're getting confirmation now of no less than 200 of these 'Necromorph' things roaming freely throughout Tokyo! Our guns are having close to no effect on them, and we need backup immediately!"_

Sam switched off the device, now breathing heavily. The thoughts that went through his head were many in number, and he had a solution for none of them that required one.

"_May Eywa look after him…"_ he said in the ancient Xilian language, looking in the direction that X had ran. _"May She look after us all…"_


	17. Hunting Party

**Chapter Sixteen: Hunting Party**

The group had made it back to the apartment safely, mostly unharmed, with the exception of Kendra, obviously. She was wrapped in a blanket, sobbing into Abby's arms. Sam was pacing throughout the room, heavily lost in thought. Zan and Milo were on the computer, searching for any information that could help them, while Grover kept an eye on the kids. Kendra couldn't let herself be seen by the kids like this. Her tears were pouring down her face and her makeup was staining Abby's clothes, who was unsuccessfully trying to calm her down.

"Shhh it's ok, Kendra…" Abby said to her. It was all she could think to say at this point. "We'll figure something out…"

"AND WHAT IF WE DON'T?" Kendra screamed in response. "MY HUSBAND TRIED TO RAPE ME AND YOU'RE ALL JUST SITTING HERE?"

"Kendra, calm down!" Zan shouted from the computer. "We have no idea where X is or exactly what's come over him!"

"But, we do have some clues," Milo added. "You said it was the Marker, but when we went to the crash site, there was nothing there."

"The Gray Marker is a semi-sentient being," Sam interjected. "It is capable of thinking for itself to an extent and will do whatever it takes to survive. Plus, it was developed by Xilians."

Everybody looked up from where they were. Grover even poked his head into the room.

"It was?" Abby asked in shock. Despite all of her research in the Marker, she had been completely unaware of this.

"Yes," replied Sam. "It was a time of war on Pandora and it was developed to be used as a weapon against the enemy. Grover, you probably didn't notice this, but it has rocket-boosters built onto the platform at its base. That's how it was able to change direction so quickly."

"And you know this how…?" Zan asked Sam.

Sam began to look away. "Let's just say I have more experience than I'd like to admit dealing with Markers."

Everybody began to look uneasy, but they all knew better than to press matters on Sam.

Finally, Zan spoke up. "So, what was up with X? He kept addressing something he called 'mother'."

"Like I said," Sam replied. "The Marker will do whatever it takes to survive, and it's known to plague the memories of its victims. As soon as X made contact with it, it must have begun tapping into his darkest memories and is using them to manipulate him." He looked in Abby's direction. "I assure you, your father knew all about that," he said to her. Abby didn't respond, looking away from Sam.

"So… X isn't doing this on purpose?" Milo asked Sam.

"That remains to be seen," Sam replied. "But I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for now."

"Well, we need to find him asap!" Kendra said, now sitting up anxiously." The prospect that X may not have intentionally attacked her seemed to give her new strength and determination.

"I've tried mentally tracking him," Sam replied. "However, the Marker appears to be blocking me. All I see are its bizarre markings."

"I sent Mirza to search the skies for him," Milo added. "But I doubt he'll be able to find anything up there."

Just then, the door flew open. Standing in the doorway, as Sam expected, was Ozaki, all suited up for battle.

"You called me, dad?" he asked Sam.

"Yes, thanks for coming, Ozaki," Sam replied. "There's too much going on for me to summarize quickly, so I will just mentally transmit the information to your brain."

Sam placed two fingers on his temple and closed his eyes. Ozaki closed his as well. A few seconds passed and both of them shortly opened their eyes again. Ozaki's eyes were now wide with shock and disbelief.

"Oh my god, X…" he said, his voice shaking. "Well, how are we going to find him?"

As if waiting for his time to step forward, Grover entered the room.

"Don't worry about a thing!" he said. "I had an idea a while ago and I think it may work!"

"Oh, fantastic," Kendra replied sarcastically. "We have to listen to one of _your _brilliant ideas."

"Just give him a chance!" Abby said. "What was your idea, Grovey?"

Zan leaned over and whispered to Milo. "…_Grovey_?"

He received the anticipated death glare from Kendra.

"Ok, well, if you want to hunt down an extremely elusive prey, who do you call?" Grover asked the group.

"GHOSTBUSTERS!" Zan shouted in response. The laughter he'd anticipated did not come.

"…No," Grover replied after an awkward silence. "You call the greatest hunters in the universe!"

He looked in the direction of the apartment door. "Ok! You can show yourselves!"

Everybody turned their attentions to the door, expected it to open. But, instead, they began to see five beings materialize into the room in front of the door. As they began to gradually show themselves, the others began to notice their appearances. They were all very tall, standing at least 8 feet. They were covered from head to toe in very primitive, but imposing armor. They had devices attached to each of their left wrists and plated armor over their arms and legs. They all appeared to have appendages extending from the back of their heads that resembled human dreadlocks. They looked to be humanoid in appearance, but any other resemblance to humans that they appeared to have was soon eliminated when they began to take full form in the room. Their skin was dark and scaled and they had arthropod-like mandibles extending from their faces beneath their dark, reptilian eyes. It was now completely apparent to everyone that they were in the presence of five Predator hunters, each of them armed to the teeth and looking ready for battle.


	18. At Home

**Chapter Seventeen: At Home.**

Sam was looking somewhat skeptical. The Yautja now standing before him looked perfectly capable of tracking X down, but his main concern was their priorities. Predators weren't known for their ability to keep their prey alive, and these ones looked particularly nasty. As one would expect thus far, Sam had enough experience dealing with Yautja to know the vicious ones from the… more vicious ones.

"Grover…" he said. "As impressive as this is, I don't know if Predators are… the right choice for this… sensitive situation."

One of the more imposing of the Yautja responded to Sam with a snarl. Grover held his arm out, separating the two.

"Well, you can at least let them try, Sam," Grover said. "I've told them not to kill, just seize and capture."

The Yautja all nodded in affirmation. Now Sam was impressed. Before Abby came along, Grover must have had a great deal of free time to learn how to speak Yautja. The Predators all cloaked and Sam watched the outlines of their bodies leap out the window of the apartment.

"For now, we ought to stay here and wait," Sam said. "X is too dangerous and delirious for us to go out there."

"What's the first thing that he'll be after, Sam?" Zan asked. "That could help the Predators."

"Well, I would imagine either Kendra or another woman," Sam replied. "If he was saying 'the Marker needs young flesh', then that's what he's going after. But, because he's become half-Necromorph, he'll find food first…"

A man was walking under a stone bridge, when he began to hear strange noises coming from a nearby sewer pipe. As he approached it, he saw what looked like a small child crouched in the pipe, rocking back and forth and crying.

"Hey kid… you alright?" the man asked, now less than arm's length from him.

The kid slowly lifted his head and the man froze. His teeth were long and pointed and his face was covered in blood. He barely had time to scream or anything before the kid sunk his teeth into the man's neck. He fell backwards, his blood soaking the grass. The child crawled out of the pipe, rising to his full height. One would not think that X was capable of mimicking a child so well. He smiled a sinister smile through his blood-covered fangs and pounced on the man, biting, gnashing, and tearing like a hungry shark, making no effort to be inconspicuous. Blood was spewing all over the ground, coating the ground and sides of the bridge. All the while, X was laughing hysterically, like a starving man who hadn't eaten in years and to whom the prospect of food was equivalent to that of having all of the treasures in the universe.

It was quiet in the apartment. The boys were monitoring the Predators' progress and Abby was supplying them with as much information as she could. Kendra was sitting alone in a room, accompanied only by Chester, who was curled up in her lap, and Ezio, who was lying next to her.

"Mama?" asked Ezio. His speech had been improving dramatically in recent days.

"Yes, sweetie?" Kendra asked.

"When is dada coming home?"

Kendra froze up for a few seconds, then gradually managed a response.

"I… don't know, sweetie… I don't know."

Tears began forming in Ezio's eyes. "I miss him…" He wrapped his arms around her waist and nestled his head in her lap. Kendra had to use every ounce of willpower that she had to keep from crying in front of her children. Chester had begun shifting and whimpering in Kendra's lap.

Sam was looking through assorted discs in the other room. Most of them were logs that Abby had given him from the _Ishimura_ and Titan Station incidents that Isaac had collected. Slowly, Sam raised his head. He heard a faint sound start emanating all around him. When he looked up, the room was not the same as when he'd entered it. An eerie, yellow light was filling the room. He was in a long hallway, and, all around him, there were people. Well, one would hardly call them people. They were strapped to the wall in pods, their skin peeled and their bodies scarcely intact. They were shaking violently and yelling and screaming bloody murder. Sam shut his eyes tightly and shook his head a few times. When he opened his eyes, the vision was gone and he was back in his office. He breathed a sigh of relief, which was soon cut short by the sound of his name behind him.

Sam whirled around. Standing behind him, her face and torn clothes coated in blood, was Coraline. His wife. The woman he once loved.

"…Sam…" she said in a soft voice. "How could you have let me die like that?"

Sam gritted his teeth in fury, but retained his composure. "You're not real. You're a hallucination from that damned Marker."

Beams of light began flashing all around Sam, blinding him. All he could hear was Coraline's voice.

"Save me, Sam! SAVE ME!"

As Sam gradually regained his vision, he began to recognize his surroundings. They were bathed in the same yellow light, but he still knew where he was: the very hospital room where his twin sons were brought into the world. But they weren't present. The only thing present was Coraline, screaming in agony on the hospital bed. Beams of light burst from her eyes and mouth before she collapsed back on the bed, dead. Sam grasped the sides of his head, his teeth grinding and his eyes shut tightly.

"NO! THIS IS NOT REAL!"

"SAM! SNAP OUT OF IT!"

Sam opened his eyes with a start. He was back in his office and Abby was standing next to him with her arm around his shoulder. Sam was breathing heavily and sweating.

"You all right?" she asked him.

Sam slumped into his chair, trying to catch his breath. "Yes… I'm fine."

"My father had those visions too," Abby told him. "Even though he wasn't near the Marker as much; almost as if its presence made him crazy…"

Sam rose from his seat in an instant and pulled a surprised Abby into a close embrace.

"Abby, your father Isaac was a great man, and a great warrior. He wasn't crazy."

Abby smiled and returned Sam's embrace.


	19. The Hunt

**Chapter Eighteen: The Hunt.**

The city was in silent desolation when the Predators' ships landed on the surface. They landed in an alleyway, even though there was seemingly nothing to hide from. Every block that the Predators had passed over was completely emptied. The swiftness and readiness of the Earth Defense Forces was to thank for that. Upon learning of the threat of infection, Lieutenant Gordon and Ozaki immediately moved to get approval from the government to move all of Tokyo's civilians into the underground shelters built beneath the city, as they had during the Xilian invasion. While they didn't fully understand, this comforted the Predators, as Grover had instructed them to keep civilian casualties to a minimum in exchange for safe passage past Earth's new planetary defenses (which the Marker was able to jam).

The Predators exited their ships, armed to the teeth with Yautja weaponry. They knew what they were up against was not going to be easy to take down.

One Predator, who, judging by his armor and body markings, was the superior, spoke to the others in Yautja.

"_You two search that area. You, follow them on the building. You, come with me."_

The Predators did as instructed, vanishing from view quickly. The Predator superior and the hunter who he'd instructed to stay behind cloaked themselves and began prowling the city streets, their infrared masks scanning the surrounding area.

"_Do you see anything?" _the hunter asked the superior.

"_Nothing yet…"_ the superior replied._ "Wait, I am picking up loud noises in the near vicinity. Let's move out."_

The two de-cloaked and began running in the vicinity of the sounds, leaping across city blocks with minimal difficulty. The superior pressed a series of buttons on his wrist, sending alerts to the other three Predators. Before long, they arrived at the source of the noises. Now, this had no impact on them, but it was a shopping center where they had ended up. And, sure enough, the noises were evidently coming from there, the cause being a hunched over figure kneeling over a pool of blood, masticating viciously on a dead body. The superior scanned the figure through his mask. The scan showed no signs of necrotic flesh and the figure's heart was still beating.

"_Target is confirmed,"_ said the superior, arming his Plasma Caster. _"Prepare to incapacitate."_

The hunched figure turned his head slowly to look at the Predators. Slowly, he rose from where he was feasting. Blood was dripping off of his teeth, which were now fully developed fangs, coated in a light pink, fleshy substance. He turned completely to face the Predators, and they were both bewildered by the sight that was now before them. They had been led to believe that their target resembled a human male, but what stood before them was something entirely different.

X's spine was literally bursting from his back, flanked by a pair of wings seemingly made from a flap of skin removed from his back. Sprouting from his shoulders were a pair of bladed arms, their bones and ligaments visibly alien in appearance. His left arm had become bulgingly huge and muscular, covered in an armored exoskeleton that appeared to be made of human bones. When X completely unhinged his mouth, it was apparent that his lower jaw was split in two, now taking the form of curved mandibles that ended in knife-like fangs. The only thing besides X's face that looked remotely human were his legs, but even they'd become obsolete, as X now appeared to have traded up their usefulness with two long, gangly, light pink toned arms ending in claws that now protruded from his back. As he stepped into the light, X's right eye was without a pupil and a dark yellow color. The pendant that once hung from his neck was now infused into his body, covered by a thick layer of skin. Only the outline of it was visible on his chest. Surprisingly, X was, for the most part, still clothed. The stretchy, accommodating leather material that Sam had developed was holding up well, despite X's heavy mutations. His spine, the wings and pairs of arms had torn through the back of it though, and X's left sleeve had completely burst.

Now, even the seasoned Predator hunters seemed intimidated. As X slowly advanced on them, snarling like a feral animal, they began backing down. They looked at each other and nodded their heads in agreement. The Predators extended their wrist blades and charged at X. X was unmoved. He lashed his bladed shoulder arms at them with a snarl. With expert precision, the Predators sliced through the arms like butter. Blood spewed from X's arm stumps as he let out a roar of agony. The Predators took a step back. X's arm stumps had begun twitching uncontrollably. They watched in surprise as, from the stumps, two new bladed arms grew. The Predators jumped several feet back and armed their plasmacasters attached to their shoulders. Blue bolts of plasma energy went flying rapidly at X. The Predators had locked onto X's chest and they looked like they were going to hit. However, at the last minute, X lifted his massive left arm and held it in front of him. The plasma bolts exploded as they connected with X's arm. The Predators locked onto the cloud of smoke that now surrounded X. Before either of them had a chance to fire, X burst from the smoke cloud, unfazed, swinging his arm like a wrecking ball. He struck the Predator hunter with brute force, knocking him through a support pillar and into the wall behind it. The superior, however, was fast. He slid under X's massive arm, wristblade at the ready, and stabbed him through the stomach. X froze for a number of seconds, then looked down at the Predator, whose wristblade was still embedded in his abdomen, and smiled. He unhinged his mouth like a snake, and from it emerged what looked like a massive bladed tongue, identical to that of the Tripod that attacked their apartment, minus the child in the midsection of it. He lashed the tongue at the superior, impaling him on it. X swung his entire body around and let the superior go, sending him flying across the road from which they'd come. X leapt into the air with his extra legs, landing directly above the injured Predator. He lifted his bladed tongue and prepared to strike.

Before he could impale the Predator a second time, X felt a hailstorm of plasma bolts pummel his back. He turned his head in a rage, catching a glimpse of three other Predators stationed on the rooftops surrounding them. X snarled at them, but had no choice but to retreat. Holding his massive arm over his head as a shield, he tore across the city and, all of a sudden, disappeared altogether. The three Predators ran toward X's position, only to find a gigantic hole in the vicinity in which he'd disappeared.


	20. Ring Around the Rosie

**Chapter Nineteen: Ring Around the Rosie.**

The three Predators stood around the large hole, scanning it through their masks. The superior, whose medicomp had aided his recovery, soon joined them. The Predator who'd accompanied him was dead.

"_He must be pursued immediately!" _the superior said in Yautja.

One of the Predators turned his head upwards suddenly. _"I do not think it will be so easy…" _he said in Yautja as well.

The superior lifted his head. He'd begun to pick up another presence as well. Several, in fact. All of them showed traces of necrotic flesh, but there was something familiar about them. The superior switched to electric vision mode on his helmet. The entire surrounding was now a bright red color, with the exception of several white outlines crawling down the sides of buildings around them. Only one type of specimen gave off such an outline in electric vision, but these specimens contained traces of necrotic flesh.

Without warning, the specimens leapt off of the side of the buildings and landed before the Predators, now standing between them and the hole X had disappeared into. Now, the dim streetlights shone on them. The superior's initial fears had been realized.

They were Xenomorphs, but not ordinary Xenomorphs. The superior's worst fears had been realized. These Xenomorphs had six limbs, two of which protruded from their backs and had sharp blades driven through their palms. These limbs had a light-pink color to them. The Xenomorphs' lower jaws were missing and blood was dripping from their loosely hanging veins. As drops of their blood hit the ground, it corroded the pavement. Many patches of their black skin were missing and their elongated skulls were split open right down the middle. Lastly, and most outstanding to the Predators, were their tails. They had seemingly reformed themselves, and now resembled proboscises rather than tails. The only logical word to define these deranged beasts would be "Xecromorphs", and these three Xecromorphs were closing in on the Predators.

"_Well, that is certainly interesting,"_ said the superior in Yautja, as these bleeding, deformed beasts lunged, roaring viciously.

The sound of splashing footsteps echoed throughout the normally silent sewer system below. Coughing and retching sounds resonated through the tunnels, followed by the sound of something large and heavy land in the water with a splash. X was limping through the reeking maze with his right hand gripping the walls for support. He'd just left his massive Tripod tongue behind him, and blood was secreting from his mouth. With a groan, X slumped against the wall of the tunnel. Red and yellowish secretions from his deformed body began coloring the sewer water.

X was shaking uncontrollably, trying to regulate his breathing. Just then, he felt a hand on his left shoulder. He slowly turned his head to see a foggy apparition of Coraline, smiling warmly at him.

"I am so proud of you, X," she said. "You've both become an outstanding fighter and gained gifts from the Marker."

"T-thank you… mother…" X said, his voice still shaking.

Cora ran her hand through X's hair affectionately. "There's only one thing you must do," she said, leaning in close to X's ear. "You must impregnate Kendra. Only she can bear the flesh that we need. Once she does, your gifts will grant the child a great power for the Marker, and we can finally be made whole…"

"As you wish… mother," X replied. He felt his eyelids grow heavy. Cora sat down next to X, her arm around his shoulder.

"Sleep now, my son," she said, her voice now becoming increasingly sinister. "Rest your weary head. Sleep to my voice…"

X's head began to fall, coming to rest against Cora's chest. She held him close, running her fingers through his hair. X's vision began to blur as he felt himself fading into a much-needed slumber. As he began to drift off, the sound of Cora's soft voice began resonating in his ears. He was too tired to make sense of her words, which is fortunate, because if he had, he'd likely have never slept again. Cora's voice, as soft as a gentle breeze, echoed throughout the sewer, her soothing lullaby rocking X to sleep, and its sinister lyrics chilling the entire atmosphere.

"_Ring around the rosie._

_Pocket full of posies._

_Ashes, ashes._

_We all fall down._

_Ring around the rosie._

_What do you suppose we_

_can do to fight the darkness_

_in which we drown?_

_Ring around the rosie._

_This evil thing, it knows me._

_Lost ghosts surround me._

_I can't fall down…"_


	21. Never Send a Predator

**Chapter Twenty: Never Send a Predator to do a Xilian's Job.**

The apartment was silent. It was completely empty. Not a person was in sight. The group had decided that remaining there was too risky, as X knew its location and, subsequently, so did the Necromorphs. It was Sam's idea that they, instead, take refuge in the hidden underground EDF shelters along with almost half of Japan.

Aware of the danger they were in, Gordon arranged for the Xilians to be placed in a maximum-security room, the location of which very few knew (Grover had sent the coordinates to the Predators so that they could find them once they had X). The room, like the rest of the refuge, was made entirely of metal, and had been fully supplied with everything they needed, including access to the EDF's intelligence databases, from which they could research the Marker further.

Night had fallen over the silent Tokyo city. The normally vibrant lights and active nightlife were nowhere to be found. The only lights visible in the city were from fires, and the only sounds were the snarls and occasional roars of the Necromorphs lurking through the streets. Beneath the city, the EDF officials were doing their best at providing for the refugees now living in their shelter. In the maximum-security room, Kendra had managed to cry herself to sleep after a restless night, whilst the others were hard at work trying to manage this crisis as best they could. The EDF were powerless and clueless in this crisis, making the Xilians Tokyo's, and potentially the Earth's only hope at survival. Milo, Zan, Grover, and Abby were hard at work on the computer, studying the Marker and trying their best to separate fact from fiction. Sam was flipping through old papers, hoping one of them held information far more reliable than that found on the Internet. Ozaki and Miyuki, the latter having made a discovery in her recent studies of the Marker, had joined them.

Miyuki's studies had yielded great success. She had learnt that the Gray Marker was composed almost entirely of a solidified, necrotic tissue; the same that Necromorph flesh was made of. However, like its predecessors, the Gray Marker emitted a field, or "dead space" that prevented the DNA within the necrotic tissue to begin recombination, which was the reason why X and Grover weren't infected, but the humans who made contact with the Necromorph tissue released from the Gray Marker from outer space were. Subsequently, it was necessary for X to carry a shard of the Marker itself, with which he could spread the contagion effectively.

Also like its predecessors, the Gray Marker seemed to possess some degree of sentience, capable of emitting signals that manifested in human/Xilian brains as incoherent sounds, images, and meanings, in most cases driving the subject paranoid. In addition, these signals could induce hallucinations in those affected by them. Hence, X constantly addressing Coraline.

Sam was already aware of the majority of this information, but saw it fit to let Miyuki explain it to the others. He had far too much on his mind to do so himself coherently. Miyuki's explanation had just finished when they heard a short, loud alarm sound. It was to alert the group of someone about to open the doors. The shiny, metallic doors slid open quickly, giving the Xilian no time to prepare for what stood in the doorway.

A Yautja; one of the five hired by Grover to hunt down X. His armor was covered in holes, dents, cracks, and the like. He was covered in open wounds, most notably a massive hole in his stomach that he was clutching with his green bloodstained hand. A trail of green blood lead down the hallway that he'd just walked. A few clicking sounds escaped from his mouth before he collapsed on the ground, his blood forming a green puddle on the ground.

Miyuki let out a shocked gasp. The others ran to the Predator's side as fast as they could. Sam got there first, rolling the Yautja over and lifting up his head.

"_What happened?" _Sam asked him in Yautja.

Given his condition, it was a shock that the Predator could even speak. But he did regardless.

"_Xenomorphs…" _he managed in Yautja. _"Infected Xenomorphs… too many. The target was… heavily infected as well."_

Sam knew he meant X.

"_He was… a kind of hybrid. Too much… for any of us. You are all… doomed."_

A number of faint clicks emanated from the Predator's mouth as his head slowly tilted back. Sam felt him release his last breath before going completely still.

A look of new determination was now on Sam's face as he rose from where he knelt. Before anybody could say a thing, he was walking swiftly to the large cabinet that he'd insisted on bringing to the refuge. He entered a multiple-digit code on the keypad and it slowly swung open, revealing a perpetual miniature-armory, filled with indescribable weaponry.

Sam had begun assembling and loading something when the others began approaching him.

"Uh… Sam?" asked Zan. "What are you doing?"

Sam didn't look up. He continued his assembling as he gave a response.

"We have to stop X before he gets any worse," he replied.

"Well, what are we going to do?" Abby asked him.

"Something I should've done when I had the chance to," Sam replied. "Instead of sitting here and sending Yautja to do it for us."

Nobody liked where this was going. The weapon that Sam was loading did not look at all nonlethal. It was much bigger than the single hand that he held it in, and it had a cartridge-shaped blade in the front of it instead of a barrel. Sam loaded into the weapon what Milo and Abby recognized as plasma cartridges. The two now had a feel for what the weapon was, unlike the others.

When Sam had finished loading the weapon, he turned to the group now hovering over him.

"We're going to find X ourselves and free him from the Marker's wrath," he said resolutely.

The others knew better than to question him.


	22. Into the Dark

**Chapter Twenty-One: Into the Dark.**

Deep within the catacombs of Tokyo's sewers, the curled up, motionless figure that was X began stirring. He lifted his massive left arm that was shielding him while he slept. Cora was kneeling before him, an angry expression on her face.

"Get up now, son," she said. "They are looking for you."

X slowly lifted his head. The Necromorph features had dissolved from his face.

"Who is, mother?" he asked.

"The ones who wish to separate us again. You must slaughter them."

X knew whom she was talking about. "But mother… They are my friends…"

"NO!" Cora shouted. Beams of pale white light suddenly burst from her eyes and mouth, shining in X's face. "THEY ARE NO FRIENDS OF YOURS. THEY WANT TO KILL ME!"

X began cowering in fear as his mother loomed over him. "No… I can't…" he said weakly.

Cora's expression began to calm. The beams of light faded and her face returned to normal.

"There's no other way, my son," she said, gently touching X's cheek. "You have to do this. You must kill them. Do it for me."

X slowly rose from his resting place. The Necromorph features began returning as he began limping through the nearby sewer tunnels.

"Yes mother…" he mumbled.

Above the surface, a Super Predator, and comrade to the fallen five Predators stood before the massive hole X had dug into the sewers. Standing behind him was Sam, Ozaki, Zan, Grover, and Milo, all armed to the teeth with Xilian and EDF weaponry. They looked like they were prepared for a war, rigged out with battle armor.

The Super Predator had witnessed the battle between his comrades and X as the superior had instructed him so that they wouldn't lose him in case the five were killed.

"_This is where my comrades fell to your friend,"_ the Super Predator said in Yautja.

"Alright," Sam replied. "Everybody ready? Whatever awaits us down there isn't going to be friendly."

"Ready!" was the response from all four of them at once. Sam saw this as a bit gratuitous.

Unexpectedly, a fifth "ready" could be heard within the mix. It was Kendra, similarly garbed and armed with her prized dual swords.

"Kendra? What are you doing here?" Sam asked her. "I told you to stay behind and protect the kids."

"Yeah, and what if X tries to rape you again?" Zan asked, clearly concerned for his sister's safety.

"That's why I came prepared," Kendra replied, brandishing her swords. "I had Miyuki and Abby watch the kids. X doesn't even know where the safe houses are, so they'll be fine."

"Fine Kendra, you can come," said Sam, as the group began moving towards the cavern. "But you have to be careful."

Kendra scoffed. "I'm always careful, Sam!" she said as she turned her head and smacked her forehead into a low-hanging sewer pipe.

"Oww! Shit!"

The others snickered.


	23. Lost and Found

**Chapter Twenty-Two: Lost and Found.**

As the seven of them walked through the sewer tunnels, they began to feel increasingly uneasy about their chances of making it out alive. The sewer water was dyed a nauseating shade of red and green and it smelled horribly. The Super Predator's tracking skills were hardly necessary, as a trail of mangled and horribly mutilated human bodies was already laid out for them. They were sickening to look at, missing limbs, eyes, teeth, lower jaws, and even had chunks missing from their bodies that looked almost like something had been feeding on them.

Sam turned to Milo. "Is that secret weapon of yours ready?" he asked him.

"Yes, sir!" Milo replied. He pressed a button on his right wristband. A red light flashed on it and began blinking continuously. From the ceiling dropped a horribly mutilated Xenomorph, looking heavily mutated. It had to be one of the Xecromorphs that the Predator spoke of. Atop its forehead was a small blinking device, and this device seemed to be inhibiting it from ripping their limbs off.

"So, you're sure that you can control it?" Sam asked Milo.

"100% positive, sir," Milo replied, who was always formal when addressing Sam in a time of conflict. "This mind control device is designed to control even the most resilient of creatures."

"Excellent work, soldier," said Sam. "Send it down that tunnel. It will be our canary."

Milo nodded. He pressed a combination of buttons on his wrist. Instantly, the Xecromorph leapt onto the ceiling and crawled into the dark tunnel, quiet as a mouse.

X was moving silently through the tunnels on the legs protruding from his back. Behind him was Cora, the light from her eyes and mouth lighting the path for him. He stopped suddenly when Cora appeared in front of him.

"Something's coming, my son," she told him.

X readied his bladed arms and clenched his massive left fist. "I'll kill it, mother… I'll kill it for you…" he said.

Cora's light shined onto the ceiling. They saw, attached to the ceiling, a Xecromorph. Neither of them took notice of the strange device blinking on its head.

"Oh, it's only one of your pets," Cora said.

The Xecromorph dropped to the ground in front of them. As X approached it, it began snarling. X looked at the creature curiously, when something else caught his eye. The device on the Xecromorph's head had begun blinking red, when it had previous been blinking green.

Without warning, the Xecromorph spat an orb of its own acidic blood at X. It struck him directly in the chest, where the contusion on his body containing the Marker shard was located. X recoiled in pain, the acid burning away the flesh on his chest covering the shard. However, X was least concerned about his own pain more than he was his mother's. Cora was holding her head, screaming in agony. The lights from her eyes and mouth were flashing on and off. Her shrieks echoed throughout the tunnels, seemingly alternating between the screams of a woman and a newborn baby. Her body had become transparent and was seemingly distorting like a television losing its signal.

"MOTHER! NO!" X shouted. As soon as his shouts we heard, that was the group's signal.

"That's him! Hurry!" Sam shouted to the others.

The seven of them charged down the tunnels, Milo's wrist device tracking the Xecromorph. It was fortunately close, only a short ways down the tunnels. Finally, they turned a corner, Milo's wrist device beeping at an extremely fast rate. They'd arrived just in time to see X decapitating the Xecromorph with his bladed arms. He looked up at them suddenly his expression changed. It was one of pure anger, hatred, and fury. His eyes and head were darting to each of them individually, each with an equal amount of unparalleled rage. X's teeth extended into light-pink colored fangs. His jaws unhinged again, revealing his mandibles, and the appendages on his back reemerged. He was now equally as horrifying as he'd been when he fought the Predators, minus the bladed tongue.

"YOU… WILL… PAY!" he roared, towering over the others on the two, gangly legs protruding from his back.


	24. The Beast Within

**Chapter Twenty-Three: The Beast Within.**

X's terrifying form loomed over the seven. All of them were too horrified to move or do anything.

"…Oh great Eywa…" Kendra said in shock.

"WHAT IS HE?" Grover shouted.

"LOOK OUT!" came Sam's voice.

X had leapt into the air on his surprisingly sturdy supporting legs and was coming down on them fast. Sam pulled a frozen Kendra out of the way while the others dove in separate directions as X landed with a massive crash. His head was darting from side to side, looking at each of them individually, waiting for one of them to make a move. None of them dared provoke him. Finally, his eyes met with Kendra's.

As he looked at her, a sinister smile appeared on his lips. Kendra was frozen in terror, Sam holding onto her shoulders.

"Give us a child…" X hissed. Sam stepped in front of Kendra, defiantly facing X. X just smiled. With a swing of his massive left arm, he sent Sam flying across the room. His father now out of the way, X leaned in close to Kendra, the grin still on his face. His mandibles extended near her, his disgusting breath blowing in her face. Kendra's eyes were shut tightly and she was trying to lean away from him. X's mandibles began stroking Kendra's cheek gently, leaving small scratch marks. Kendra was shaking all over and tears were running down her face.

Suddenly, X recoiled back, shrieking in pain. An iron pipe had punctured his wing. Sam smiled slightly at the precision of his throw. X stumbled backwards, away from Kendra. Now with Kendra at safe distance, Zan and Milo saw it safe to open fire. Red laser bolts flew from their various weapons, bombarding X's body. Despite his left arm's apparent size and weight, X was able to lift it to protect himself extremely easily. Against his giant arm, Zan and Milo's weapons were made equivalent to hitting X with spitballs. And, like spitballs, they became a great annoyance to him. He turned to the two, his jaw still unhinged. The two looked at each other with great fear. Without warning, X spat a greenish-brown ball of sludge at them. It moved at such speed that neither of them had time to dodge it. The slime struck Milo's weapon, causing him immediately to drop it. He watched as the substance corroded away at the gun, until it was melted on the ground before him. They barely had time to react before X fired another at them. This time it hit Zan in the shoulder.

"AH, FUCK!" he yelled as he fell back, clutching his arm. X now advanced on Milo, who was struggling to load another weapon. He loomed over him, about to strike, when a laser bolt suddenly hit him in one of the legs extended from his back, right at the joint. A second soon followed, hitting the other joint. Instantly, the two legs disjointed and fell from X's back. X hit the ground hard, but recovered quickly, now standing on his own two legs again, supported by his left arm. He turned his head ferociously and saw, behind him, Ozaki, his gun smoking. X looked at him as his pained expression turned into a sinister smile.

Ozaki raised an eyebrow at X, still pointing his gun at him. "X, don't make me shoot. You're my brother. I don't want to kill you."

X's smile widened. "Too bad, because I really want to kill you."

Just then, two snake-like creatures leapt onto Ozaki from behind, wrapping themselves around Ozaki's arms and neck, clearly trying to strangle him. Ozaki, clearly taken by surprise, panicked. He began struggling frantically, trying to get the creatures off of him. Upon getting a glimpse of them around his arms, he realized that he was being attacked by X's back legs, the same legs he'd just dismembered from X's body. Ozaki fell to the ground as the limbs bound his arms and legs. He couldn't move. X stood over him, smirking. He raised the bladed arms protruding from his shoulders over his head, ready to strike Ozaki.

Before he could, a Predator smart-disc flew threw the air and sliced through X's bladed arms. They fell to the ground in front of X as he roared in rage. He watched the smart-disc fly through the air and return to the hand of the Super Predator. Within seconds, X was in the Super Predator's face, roaring like an enraged beast. The Super Predator was not moved. Nor was he fazed when two new bladed arms grew out of X's back. However, as one would expect, he did stagger when X swung the arms, slicing off the Predator's right leg. Green blood gushed from his stump of a leg and he fell to the ground. Despite this, the Super Predator, living up to his name, brought his left arm in front of him as X stood over him menacingly. However, instead of activating one of his weapons, he brought his hand underneath the controls. A second device was located there. The Predator pressed the four black, rectangular buttons on the device in a specific order. As soon as he did, red lights began flashing on the buttons. The Super Predator looked up and made eye contact with Sam. Almost instantly, Sam knew what was about to happen. The Predator gave him a nod and Sam turned the others.

"RUN!"

Milo grabbed Zan by his good arm and pulled him to his feet. Grover drew a knife and cut Ozaki free of X's limbs. With Kendra's hand in his, Sam took off down the sewer tunnels, followed by the others. X was still standing over the Predator, curiously staring as the Predator removed his helmet. He looked up at X and began laughing. It was a maniacal, chilling laugh. X just stared at him quizzically. Suddenly, Cora appeared beside him.

"My son, get out! You have to ru-

Before she could finish, the Predator's device detonated. A gigantic explosion erupted throughout the entire sewer system. Above the surface, it blew a massive hole in the ground, sending concrete, cars, and Necromorphs flying into the air. In the EDF safe houses, Miyuki, Ana, and Abby could feel the shaking tremor from inside the maximum-security room.

In the tunnels, the group was running with all the speed that Xilians were capable of, which was substantial given the speed of humans. However, the explosion was gaining on them fast. Sam knew it would be upon them in seconds, and there was no cover down here in the sewers. Without hesitation, he stopped abruptly in his tracks and made an about-face. It was seconds before the others realized he'd stopped. But they couldn't stop running.

Sam stood before the fiery blast, which was seconds from consuming him. He stood firm in his stance, then threw his hands out in front of him. A massive burst of energy rippled through the air in front of him. Suddenly, the explosion stopped. The Xilians stopped running and looked back at Sam. He was seemingly generating an invisible force that was keeping the explosion from spreading. The others were staring in shock and amazement. However, everyone has their limits, and Sam seemed to almost be at his. The force was weakening and the explosion was slowly nearing them. Sam was falling back, unable to hold the explosion for much longer.

Everybody was too focused on the advancing explosion to notice Ozaki was beginning to give off a golden aura. It was his Kaiser powers, reawakening after years of being dormant. The aura surrounding him, Ozaki ran at Sam and the explosion. He cupped his hands together behind him and the golden energy began getting drawn into a small sphere in his hands. As he neared Sam and the explosion, the sphere began growing larger. Finally, when he was right in front of the explosion, he thrust his hands forward with a yell.

The resulting beam of energy shattered Sam's force field, but hit the explosion directly. As Ozaki held his hands out in front of him, the energy blast continued, slowly forcing back the explosion.

"EVERYONE GET BEHIND ME!" Ozaki yelled.

The Xilians grouped behind Ozaki as he began to lessen his grip on the energy beam. In a second, the explosion overtook them. However, Ozaki's continuous energy beam created an opening in the blast wave, keeping the group safe as the explosion passed over them. In a few seconds, the explosion died down and Ozaki released his grip on the energy beam. He fell to one knee, clearly exhausted. Sam helped him up and Zan slapped him on the back.

"Nice going, Kaiser!" he said.

Ozaki staggered from the force of Zan's strike, but thanked him nonetheless. Sam took a look at the explosion's radius. It seemed to have covered at least a 1-mile radius of the entire city. All Predator Hunters kept a self-destruct device on hand as a last-resort weapon. He knew the Super Predator couldn't have survived it. However, this still left him wondering about-

"X…" said Sam, taking off back towards the explosion's origin. The others soon followed, Ozaki running as fast as he could.


	25. Our Son

**Chapter Twenty-Four: Our Son.**

Sam was the first to reach the area where the bomb had gone off. The once relatively small area had now become a massive crater in the middle of Tokyo. Sam felt water hitting his face. It had begun to rain, which was made apparent by the gaping hole that exposed the sewer tunnel to the open air. The others had arrived behind him, Ozaki last because of his exhaustion, and had begun searching through the rubble for any trace of X.

Sam's search yielded better results. Out of the rubble, he pulled what little remained of the Super Predator's mask. He knew that had to be all that was left of him. However, he could find no trace of X. Immediately, Sam's extremely logical mind was at work.

"_A point blank explosion of that magnitude would've blown anybody to bits. X displayed regeneration capabilities, but Isaac told me that the Hunter couldn't regenerate after getting incinerated. In all likelihood, X should be dead. His Brute arm wouldn't protect him from something like that…"_

Just then, Sam looked up through the opening in the roof. He saw Necromorphs were prowling around the crater that they were standing in.

"_The Necromorphs still remain. If the explosion killed X, the Marker shard would've been destroyed too. I'm feeling no severe reaction from the Marker itself or the Necromorphs, so that means the shard still remains and, therefore, so does X. But where? How could he have survived that explosion?"_

Sam surveyed the area around him. Everything surrounding the tunnel had been completely shoved aside by the explosion. However, the ground showed no real signs of alteration from the blast. Something else he'd noticed was the ground had been vibrating ever since they set foot in the area. Finally, it hit him.

* * *

><p>Sam leapt ten feet into the air as X burst out of the ground underneath him. The others turned their heads in shock.<p>

"He's ALIVE?" yelled Grover. "HOW?"

"Obviously he dug deeper in the ground and was protected from the explosion, idiot!" Milo replied to him.

"Who cares how he survived?" asked Zan. "What matters is we have to get out of here, now! He's too strong for any of us to handle! We'll find him again when we're better prepared."

A good idea from Zan. It seemed unthinkable.

"He's right!" said Kendra. "Sam, let's go!"

Sam hadn't been paying attention. He'd already drawn his specialized sword from his belt and was attacking X with everything he had. However, X's Brute arm was protecting him from every slash. It was like hitting a brick wall. X's arm struck back with great force, knocking Sam across the room. In mid-air, Sam did a flip before landing on his feet several feet away from X. With the speed of someone half his age, Sam drew and loaded a cartridge into the frontal blade of his unusual weapon and aimed at X. Three blue laser reticules targeted the now exposed Marker shard embedded in X's chest.

Instinctively, X froze. He knew what would happen if he provoked Sam to fire that weapon; he'd lose his mother for good. Sam however, knew himself that destroying that shard meant crippling the threat of the Marker greatly. His finger was around the trigger and he was seconds away from pulling it.

"_Sam… you wouldn't kill our son, would you?"_

* * *

><p>Sam suddenly hesitated. Everything around him had turned a shade of brown and there was an incessant ringing sound in his ears. His vision had become blurred and fuzzy and there were faint voices sounding around him. When he turned his attentions back to X, he saw that X was no longer the Necromorph behemoth had he'd become. Instead, standing several feet away from Sam with the laser reticules pointed at him, was a juvenile X. He looked just as Sam remembered him when he was only a few years old, except, in this form, he was still in his human dream-walker body. Sam slowly lowered the weapon off of X. However, as he lowered it, he noticed X's Necromorph features begin to slowly reappear on his body. He quickly raised it back up and X's form returned to that of his young self.<p>

Sam watched, as, behind the child X, Cora appeared, her hand on X's shoulder. Sam's grip on his weapon was beginning to loosen. He seemed seconds away from dropping it, before he clenched his teeth and aimed the reticules at them.

"You're not Coraline!" Sam said angrily. "Coraline is gone! You're not real! None of this is! THIS IS ALL IN MY HEAD!"

The others were standing from afar, their guns pointed at X, all of them feeling very confused.

"Uhh… who's he talking to?" Grover asked them.

None of the Xilians had an answer. X hadn't moved or changed since Sam aimed the weapon at him, and now Sam was yelling in his direction.

However, in Sam's mind, his dead wife was standing behind his toddler son.

"_I thought I could trust you…" _said Coraline's apparition. _"But you let me die. And now you want to take me away from our son?"_

"DAMN IT, SAM!" shouted Kendra. "TAKE THE SHOT!"

Sam stared at Cora's image, an expression of grief in his eyes. Shutting his eyes and clenching his teeth, Sam let go of his weapon, letting it hit the ground with a clatter. An evil grin emerged on X's face and he began laughing. It was that maniacal laugh of his. Sam sunk to his knees, not making eye contact with X, and therefore completely unaware that the illusion had faded.

X's laughter continued as he slowly turned his head to face the others.

"F-FIRE!" Kendra shouted.

The Xilians unloaded their firepower on X, red laser bolts exploding all over his body.

None of it hurt him in the slightest.

Just when they thought hope was lost, X suddenly doubled over in pain. His crazed laughter had turned to agonized screams. He was clutching at his chest where the Marker shard was. As if his arms were being controlled like a puppet on strings, X grabbed the shard and yanked it off of the center of his chest. Holding it like a dagger with the pointed end facing him, X held the shard out in front of him.

"NO! STOP HIM!" Milo yelled.

However, their guns had overheated and weren't firing. They were powerless and could only watch as X violently drove the Marker shard into his heart.


	26. Dracomorph

**Chapter Twenty-Five: Dracomorph.**

The shard pierced X's heart with a horrifying squelch. He slowly let go of it, leaving the shard embedded in his most vital organ. X doubled over again, coughing up blood by the gallon. The others looked on in sheer horror. Again, they were powerless. Even if they weren't powerless, they couldn't have acted, as they had no idea what to do in this situation.

The shard began glowing a dark shade of red. X's head rose from the ground. His eyes had turned red and his entire body had begun shaking uncontrollably. He looked like he was having a seizure. Ozaki was about to jump in and help, when X suddenly let out a booming roar. It echoed throughout the entire city, sounding almost like Godzilla.

His hands slammed to the ground in front of him and he stood on all fours like a beast. Seemingly crawling out of the hole in his chest filled by the shard, long strands of light pink, necrotic flesh began covering his entire body. The Xilians watched in shock as massive muscles, bones and skin, all alien in appearance, began building all around X's body. It was almost like the shard was building a kind of shell body around X.

The necrotic flesh built around his arms and legs, but didn't stop when it reached the end of each. It went on, constructing gigantic arms and legs, and extending beyond X's ordinary arms and legs. As the flesh joined closer and tighter together, the appendages began to look almost reptilian in appearance. The flesh building around X's torso began looking more like scales than skin. The flesh traveling over his back began forming what looked like new appendages, protruding from his shoulders. As they took shape, they began to almost look like… wings.

The flesh traveled further past the end of X's back, forming another new appendage from his rear. It extended farther and farther behind him and was long and thick in appearance. It didn't take long for the Xilians to realize that it was a tail.

As the flesh continued piling onto X's body, the new arms and legs covering his real ones began lifting him up off the ground. As he slowly rose to his feet, it became apparent that the general size of this fleshy shell was much bigger than anticipated. Each arm and leg was twice the size of an average human and the length of its body stretched several dozen meters long, including his new tail. X's head was located near the neck of this shell, but, from the neck, it continued building. The flesh was building an entirely new head at the end of the neck beneath which X was, suspended in mid air inside of it. The head began taking shape. It had large horns on its head, a long snout, and rows of jagged teeth.

When its formation was complete, it became apparent what this shell was meant to resemble.

A dragon.

This gigantic shell, constructed of necrotic flesh by the Marker shard around X's body, put X within the body of a massive, artificial dragon. The dragon stood up on its hind legs, bringing its head into the open air above the crater. Its wings were folded on its back and its tail was curled beside its body. Its eyes were blank and white as it stared down at the awestruck Xilians. It looked at them and gave the group a sinister grin, its jagged teeth showing. At once, they knew X had to be the one controlling this thing, whether he knew it or not.

The dragon unfolded its massive wingspan and began to flap them slowly. Every wave sent a small windstorm at the Xilians below. With one final, mighty beat, the dragon X took off into the air, flying out of the crater and into the pouring rain above. The Xilians just stared in awe as X flew into the night and out of sight.

* * *

><p>Sam had just risen to his feet went Kendra came angrily up to him.<p>

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TAKE THE SHOT?" she shouted angrily, hitting Sam's chest repeatedly. "I thought you weren't going to hold back!"

Milo grabbed Kendra by the arm. "It's not his fault!" he told her. "The Marker must've caused him hallucinations. They're unbelievably strong."

Kendra shook herself free of Milo's grip and walked off. Finally, Sam, who was sweating profusely, spoke.

"We need… to destroy that shard," he said. "We do that, and everything will be undone."

"Easier said than done," Grover replied.

"We're going to have to track him down again," said Ozaki. "Shouldn't be too hard now given his… change."

* * *

><p>In the skies above them, X stared down at the massive city from the organic vessel covering his body. He himself was wondering how this happened. He hadn't stabbed himself with the shard on purpose. It was as if someone had done it for him…<p>

Then he knew. He turned his head quickly and saw, sitting beside him inside the dragon vessel, Coraline. She was smiling warmly at him.

"Mother… you saved me…" he said. "Thank you…"

"Of course I did, my child," she said. "I love you."

"But…" said X, turning away. "He targeted the shard, not me."

"I saved _YOU_, X," Cora said again. "This isn't about the Marker. This is about you."

X looked at her and smiled weakly.

"Listen to me, X," Cora said. "The barrier between us is wearing thin. All you need to do is kill them." She pointed beneath them at the Xilians. "You can't be beaten now."

X stared down at the group. His mind was racing. They were the only things standing between him and his mother? He began to think back. It was Sam who hid the truth from him, and who tried to separate him from Coraline back in the sewers. The others had all tried to do the same as well. X's eyes flared with anger as he looked at them in fury. His mind was made up.

"I will kill them!" he said to Cora. "Kendra will bear the child you desire, but the others will pay for the pain that they put you through!"

X let out a vicious, thunderous roar and went into a death plunge towards the city. As he neared the ground, he flattened his wings out and began soaring overhead, directly above the buildings. His colossal dragon mouth opened and, from it, came a massive stream of fire.


	27. Riper with Age

**Chapter Twenty-Six: Riper with Age.**

Sam, Ozaki, Kendra, Zan, Milo, and Grover had emerged from the crater, now looking at a sight that made them want to go back into the crater. Fire was raging all throughout the city, making Tokyo look like a giant candle in the middle of Japan. Necromorphs were screeching and snarling in the flames, running like mad, flailing around viciously. They watched a dark shadow pass above them, dropping fireballs from its mouth upon the city. The fire was engulfing everything around them, and it showed no signs of letting up.

"Ok…" said Grover. "…Not good."

High above them, X was staring down at the burning city from his dragon shell. He smiled at the sounds of the fire spreading and the Necromorphs screaming below. Coraline sat beside him, smiling warmly at him, but with a sinister look in her eye that X seemed to overlook.

"Excellent work, my son," Cora said to X. "Now. Finish it."

"Yes… mother," X replied.

The dragon shell's massive mouth opened and it reared back its head. A gigantic ball of fire began building up between its jaws. It grew larger and larger every second. In seconds, it was as big as the giant golf ball at Disney's Epcot. It was a mystery how that dragon shell was holding it up. The Xilians were staring up at it in shock, all of them at a loss for words.

"Something that size…" Ozaki said finally. "If he fires it, it could wipe out the whole city!"

"Well, can't you stop him?" asked Grover. "He's _your _brother!"

Ozaki shot Grover a look. "I would if I could reach him!"

"That's it!" said Kendra. "Grover! Call Mirza! He could reach X!"

Grover looked horrified at the thought. "No way! He's just an ikran! He'd get incinerated!"

"WELL, WHAT OTHER CHOICE DO WE HA-" Zan began to yell, when something caught his attention. The massive light in the sky was getting closer. It was too late. X had launched the fireball and it was headed straight towards them.

Before anybody could make a move, Sam was standing at the very top of Tokyo City Hall, defiantly facing the incoming fireball. He inhaled deeply and braced himself in position. He held his arms out in front of him and his eyes were locked on the fireball as he shouted,

"ENOUGH!"

Materializing from his hands, a massive shimmering wall of energy appeared before the incoming fireball. It spread throughout almost all of Tokyo, protecting the entire city. The flaming apocalyptic sphere collided with it with tremendous force. It seemed at first to be breaking through, but Sam wasn't moving in the slightest from his position. Miraculously, the fireball began slowing down in speed, coming to a complete halt in a matter of seconds. Sam was still standing atop City Hall, sweating and straining to keep the wall standing.

The Xilians were standing in complete awe. They had never seen a display of power so immense from Sam. It did not surprise them that he was capable of it, but the very sight of this power seemed to amaze them.

The dragon shell containing X was still suspended in the air on its wings from where it had launched the fireball. Zan's eyes were locked firmly on it, but it suddenly vanished. For a brief second, Zan had no idea where it had gone.

"HEY! WHERE'D HE GO?" Zan shouted. The others looked quickly around, but saw no trace of X. The fireball must've been getting closer, because they all felt a sudden gust of warm wind blow past them. Thankfully, Grover's eyes managed to spot the dragon shell before Sam could panic and lose his focus.

"There he is!" Grover said. "He's flying away!"

Sure enough, the dragon shell was soaring off into the distance on its massive wings. Sam could see it from his position, and he knew that they couldn't let X get away again. He changed his footing and lessened his grip on the energy shield. When it seemed as if the fireball was about to break through, Sam thrust both of his hands forward with a mighty yell. A seemingly invisible force burst from his hands and blew through the energy wall like it was glass window. However, it didn't stop there. The force struck the oncoming fireball with equal force. Like a bat hitting a baseball, the force exploded upon contact with the fireball, sending the massive death sphere rocketing into the sky. The Xilians watched with shock, as the massive fireball soon became no more than a tiny speck in the sky before disappearing altogether.

When it had gone completely, Sam exhaled deeply, teleporting back down to the ground with whatever strength he had left. The Xilians surrounded him, relieved for both his safety and theirs.

"Sam… even I didn't know you had powers like that!" said Milo, amazed.

"Well, when you're my age, you pick up a few thing," Sam replied, still struggling to stand back up after that attack.

"How old ARE you anyway?" Zan asked him.

Ozaki, whose outburst caused the others to fear the worst immediately, shortly interrupted Sam's answer.

"WHERE'S KENDRA?"

The Xilians immediately began scanning the area as fast as they could. Sure enough, Kendra was nowhere to be found. She wasn't back in the crater, she wasn't near them on Milo's wrist radar, and they couldn't remotely contact her. She was gone.

"Where could she have gone?" asked Zan frantically.

"No…" said Sam, having come to a horrifying realization. "When X's dragon shell vanished… he must've entered the shield and… taken Kendra."

"WHAT? HOW DID HE DO THAT SO FAST?" Grover yelled in shock.

"Xilians have been known to show great increases of power when driven by an intense desire," Sam explained. "That is the only possibility I can imagine."

Ozaki glared off into the direction which X's shell had flown him.

"The Marker…" he muttered to himself.


	28. Room of Angel

**Chapter Twenty-Seven: Room of Angel.**

Kendra was staring down at the city below from over a thousand feet in the air. She wanted to scream or try and get loose, but she knew there was no chance of either of those options being effective. The dragon shell's claws were closed tight around her body. She couldn't move a muscle. She could hear a voice coming from the shell above her; the voice of the man she once loved. But that man was gone. The Marker had all but taken him. Only the twisted shell of the man was left.

Kendra could feel them descending down to the ground. They were lowering into another massive hole in the ground, leading into the sewer system. She could hear X's voice muttering from inside the shell, seemingly talking to himself. The only words should make out were, "Yes mother… whatever you say…"

The claws released their grip on Kendra and she fell to the ground. Before she could try and fight back, a strand of necrotic flesh, almost seemingly alive, crawled from the dragon shell's foot and wrapped itself around Kendra, binding her arms to her sides and her legs together. She looked back toward the massive shell looming over her. The necrotic skin that it was built out of was receding back slowly. Its head and tail were shrinking back toward the center of the shell, retracting like ants returning to an anthill. Soon, the entire shell had retracted back into the Marker shard embedded in X's chest. Now, only X remained in the room. The shell had completely disappeared back into the shard. However, Kendra would rather have seen him behind the shell than the way he looked now. X's skin was almost white and his pupils were nearly gone. He was covered in blood and his leather clothes were badly torn. There was a large hole in his shirt where the Marker shard was embedded. He was staggering towards Kendra with an unsettling look on his face.

"Mother… wishes for me to impregnate you…" he said in a deep, shaky voice. "And so I will."

Kendra was desperately trying to break free of the necrotic binds, reaching for her sword with all of her strength. It was no use. X was standing over her, reaching to cover her mouth with his hand. Kendra ferociously bit down on his hand. X didn't seem to notice. His eyes were burning with rage as he came closer and closer to Kendra. She couldn't do a thing. She felt as helpless as a child. All she could do was close her eyes and wait for it to be over.

* * *

><p>Sam slowly approached the massive hole he had uncovered in the city. He was alone. He'd sent the others back to the underground safe house so they could tend to their wounds. Sam always healed exceptionally quickly. He switched on a flashlight attached to his shoulder as he began stepping into the darkness. The light darted from one side of the tunnel to the other. He was seeing no signs of activity. All that was in the tunnel were a few decaying Necromorph bodies. He couldn't hear a thing except for what sounded like faint whispers. Just then, a voice caught his attention.<p>

"Over here, Sam…"

He knew that voice. It was Cora's. Untainted, unaltered. He stopped abruptly and began looking around. He couldn't see anything unusual.

"Over here… Over here…"

Sam's eyes began scanning the tunnel frantically. "WHERE ARE YOU? SHOW YOURSELF! NOW!"

A hand grabbed his shoulder. Sam whirled around, gun in hand. He could barely make out a face behind him from the three beams of light shining in his face. He heard hoarse screams echoing through his head, followed by loud, unintelligible chanting. The light was blinding him and all he could see were bizarre markings, flashing before his eyes. The chanting grew faster and louder and the screams were piercing his eardrums. Sam felt his vision fading as his head began spinning. The lights faded as Sam collapsed on the ground.

* * *

><p>From a sewer tunnel came Cora's apparition, walking slowly. X looked up at her from where he was sitting. Kendra was still tied up against the wall, her cheeks covered in tears and bruises covered her face. Her clothes had been violently torn and she was very indecently exposed.<p>

"It is done, mother," X said to Cora. "She will birth us a worthy host by morning."

Cora smiled at X warmly. "Well done, my son. I am very proud of you," she said. "Your enemies will surely find you soon. You must rest for when they do. I will watch over you."

"Thank you, mother…" he said. Cora sat down next to X as leaned over, resting his head on Cora's chest as he began to drift off to sleep. Kendra stared at X, tears pouring down her face. This was not the X she'd fallen in love with. Not even close. He was gone. Completely and utterly gone.

X nestled his head on Cora's chest as he felt her hands stroking his head. She began humming softly to him. Her soothing voice echoed throughout the sewer tunnels as she began to sing softly to X. The eeriness of her words began chilling the area. Even Kendra, who couldn't see Cora, felt a chill down her spine as Cora sang.

_"You lie silent there before me.  
>Your tears may mean nothing to me now.<br>The wind howling at the window.  
>The Love you never gave.<br>I give to you._

_Really don't deserve it._  
><em>But now there's nothing you can do.<em>  
><em>So sleep in your only memory of me.<em>  
><em>My dearest mother.<em>

_Here's a lullaby to close your eyes… goodbye…_  
><em>It was always you that I despised.<em>  
><em>I don't feel enough for you to cry… oh well…<em>  
><em>Here's a lullaby to close your eyes… goodbye…<em>  
><em>Goodbye...<em>  
><em>Goodbye...<em>

_So insignificant._  
><em>Sleeping dormant deep inside of me.<em>  
><em>Are you hiding away lost?<em>  
><em>Under the sewers?<em>  
><em>Maybe flying high in the clouds…<em>

_Perhaps you're happy without me._  
><em>So many seeds have been sown in the field.<em>  
><em>And who could sprout up so blessedly<em>  
><em>If I had died?<em>

_I would have never felt sad at all._  
><em>You will not hear me say I'm sorry.<em>  
><em>Where is the light?<em>  
><em>I wonder if it's weeping somewhere…<em>

_Here's a lullaby to close your eyes… goodbye…_  
><em>It was always you that I despised<em>  
><em>I don't feel enough for you to cry… oh well…<em>  
><em>Here's a lullaby to close your eyes… goodbye…<em>  
><em>Goodbye...<em>  
><em>Goodbye..."<em>


	29. It's Time

**Chapter Twenty-Eight: It's Time.**

Kendra was writhing on the ground in utter agony. This feeling was nothing like pregnancy. The child was not gradually growing in her. It felt like it was expanding with every second. She felt as if her stomach was going to explode. She felt overwhelmingly sick. Her heart was pounding and she felt faint.

Suddenly, she felt a massive lurching in her stomach. It felt as if whatever was inside of her was kicking and screaming wildly trying to get out. The pain was unbearable. She began desperately struggling to her feet, but she was too weak to walk and fell onto her hands and knees. She felt her stomach heave violently and her retching noises that followed echoed throughout the sewer tunnels. X raised his head, aroused from his slumber. He saw Kendra a few feet away, on all fours like a dog, bent over a puddle of her own stomach matter.

"_My son…" _Coraline's voice echoed through his head. _"It is time. The new host is arriving…"_

X looked up at Cora's apparition, leaning over his shoulder. He looked back to Kendra with a confused expression.

"We must deliver the Marker's new host, my son," Coraline said to him.

"Yes, mother," X said, walking towards Kendra in some kind of trance. "Whatever you say…"

* * *

><p>Sam's eyes slowly began blinking open. His head was still spinning and his vision was blurred. It felt almost like a hangover of some kind. As his vision began falling into focus, he suddenly jumped. A Necromorph Slasher had been eyeballing him to see if he was really dead. Sam let out a yell and jumped backwards, his hand in front of him. A beam of energy burst from his palm and struck the Necromorph. There was a screeching sound and, when the light cleared, there was nothing left of it.<p>

Sam was catching his breath from that scare and began to rise to his feet, looking around frantically. There was no sign of X or Kendra. Just then, a high-pitched screaming sound pierced his ears. He'd heard this sound before. It was in a hospital room almost a year ago.

"KENDRA!"

Sam shut his eyes and felt himself teleport.


	30. Happy Memories

**Chapter Twenty-Nine: Happy Memories**

Kendra's piercing screams were echoing throughout the entire sewer system. If anybody were alive above them, they'd surely have heard it. However, the unbearable amount of pain she was under was rivaled by the amount of terror that she was in. As soon as she'd gone into labor, she'd found herself faced with a horrifyingly damaged visage of Coraline, standing beside the mesmerized, incoherent X. She may have been able to put two and two together and figure out that this was the illusion that the Marker had put X under had she not been in an excruciating amount of pain. Cora's visage loomed over Kendra, beams of light shining from its face.

"Birth the host, or die, Xilian woman!" Cora's voice echoed in Kendra's ears. Kendra's hands flew to her ears as her screams continued, now in both pain and terror. Cora's words were echoing repeatedly in her head, getting louder and louder as they did. Kendra's screams followed the same pattern.

The screams passed X's ears and he brought a hand to his temple. He could feel something pounding in his head, and it wasn't his eardrums. It felt like there was something in his mind that was trying to get his attention. The more he ignored it, the more forceful it became. X gritted his teeth and shut his eyes, trying to shut this sensation out. Cora turned her head towards X, her hand clenched around Kendra's lower jaw.

"What's wrong, X?" she asked.

X shook his head and opened his eyes, looking at Cora. "N-nothing. I'm fine…" he replied, not making eye contact with her.

"Good," Cora replied. "You must help deliver the child, or else the Marker will inevitably die."

Kendra was clenching her fists as hard as she could till her knuckles were white, trying to muffle her screams.

"_Oh Eywa… this is the absolute worst birth yet," _she thought to herself, trying to fight back tears.

Several feet away, Sam stood behind a doorway, covering the corner so as not to be seen. He knew if X spotted him, he'd be off like a scared animal with Kendra in tow. Sam's eyes were fixed on Kendra, who was writhing on the ground in agony. As much as he wanted to intervene, Sam knew that he needed to wait until this host was born, at which point the Marker would no longer need Kendra. However, he did notice X start to look dazed as Kendra's screams rose. At that moment, he saw a glimmer of hope.

The real X was fighting back to answer Kendra's screams.

He was sure of it. Perhaps X wasn't aware of it just yet, but it was happening. He knew Kendra needed to keep on screaming, or else they had no hope of getting through to X.

"_Don't fight it, Kendra," _Sam thought to himself. _"Give in to the pain."_

And Kendra was on the verge of doing so. Unlike with Ezio, it felt as if this… creature was fighting like mad to escape from her womb, clawing and struggling like a wild animal. Kendra's agonized screams were ever increasing and X's throbbing head became even worse. Kendra's flailing arms reached out and grabbed onto X's free hand, squeezing it with bone-crushing force, even more brutal than the first time.

X let out a demonic howl of pain. "THIS HURTS LIKE HELL! I HAVEN'T FELT PAIN LIKE THIS SINCE…" X suddenly stopped. He spaced out for a few moments. "Since…" Something had clicked suddenly in his head. He was beginning to recall… something.

He remembered bright lights shining all around a white room, scrambling people going in and out of the room, the screams of his pregnant wife in labor, and the eventual first cries of his newborn son… These memories were from a time that he'd thought he'd entirely forgotten. A happy time.

Before X could process this, his thought process was interrupted by pain. Complete, utter, searing pain spreading across his entire head. Whatever had been bothering him in the back of his head was now starting to take charge.


	31. Miracle of Birth

**Chapter Thirty: Miracle of Birth**

X dropped to the ground, clutching his head doubled over in pain. His screams of agony rival even Kendra's as they echo through the sewers. He was in too much pain to notice, but the apparition of Cora was beginning to fade. As the pain increased, Cora's voice began to become garbled, almost like TV static, and her body was slowly disappearing. At this point, X was stumbling across the room, slamming his head against the sewer walls as his screams sent vibrations throughout the room.

Sam could feel the vibrations from behind the doorway where he hid. Either Kendra's voice got a lot deeper, or the very thing that he'd anticipated was taking place. The real X was still in there, buried somewhere beneath all of the necrotic flesh that layered X's insides. And, answering Kendra's cries for help, it was now fighting to make its way back to the surface. However, his feeling of relief was soon cut short by another shriek coming from Kendra. The feeling of utter stupidity was making his head ache as Sam rushed out from behind the doorway to Kendra.

X was in too much agony himself to even notice Sam enter the room and kneel before Kendra. It felt as if a drill was making its way through his brain. X slammed his body, fists, and head on every corner of the room. Much to his apparent surprise, this did little to help ease the pain. The glowing gray shard embedded in his chest was beginning to gradually fade.

Sam gave Kendra a light shake. "Kendra, it's me," he said. "It's Sam. Listen to me, you have to get that creature out of you before it start devouring you from the inside."

Another wave of pain rushed over Kendra's body, causing her to let out another shriek. Sam grabbed hold of her hand and brought his other hand to her forehead. An eerie blue energy surrounded his hand atop Kendra's forehead. Before long, she began to feel the pain lessen. Though it was not gone altogether.

"Sam…" she spoke in a weak voice and her eyes were glossed with tears. "I can't do this… it's too much…. I'm not strong enough…"

Sam's grip on Kendra's hand tightened. "Kendra, you've taken down foes at least ten times your size in the past," he said to her. "I'll be damned if this little demon is what becomes your downfall."

He smiled at her. Weakly, she managed to return it. "Come on, Kendra," Sam said forcefully. "Push! Don't let that little demon beat you!"

Kendra nodded weakly, her hand squeezing Sam's like she was trying to burst his veins. Unlike his son, though, Sam showed seemingly no reaction to it. Sweat was pouring down Kendra's face and every part of her body was in pain. This was infinitely more painful than birthing Ezio had been. This one seemed to be fighting to get out, flailing and scratching like a feral creature. Kendra's screams gradually returned, echoing through every corner of the sewer. X was continuing to stumble around the sewer, his veins bursting out of his head and his eyes turning bloodshot. The only sound he could hear was a piercing ringing in his ears. He could almost make out a voice within the ringing, but the searing pain in his head was rendering his senses useless.

"Push, Kendra!" Sam shouted. "It's almost out!"

Kendra's grip on Sam's hand tightened as her entire body convulsed hard. Whatever was inside of her was breaking through, and it wasn't leaving quietly. Kendra's screams reached their peak along with the pain engulfing her body.

Then, all at once, it stopped. The pain vanished entirely and her body felt completely drained. She could barely move. With all of the strength she could muster, she looked up at Sam.

"S-Sam?" she asked slowly in a shaky voice. "…W-what is it?"

Nothing could've prepared Sam for what he found himself laying eyes on.


	32. Lurker

**Chapter Thirty-One: Lurker**

The small, hunched over creature that he held in his arms was not Xilian, nor was it human. Its tiny body was hideously deformed in every way possible. Its lower abdomen was dominated by short, limp tentacles and its muscles on its back were pulsating. He knew immediately what this creature was. Isaac Clarke had documented a creature that looked exactly like this during his encounters with the Marker. Sam's memory was fuzzy, but he recalled it being given the classification of 'Lurker'. The creature began to squirm in Sam's arms as its blank, white eyes opened. As soon as they laid eyes on Sam, the creature let out a deafening screech. Out of its back burst three barbed tentacles that flailed wildly in the air. They struck Sam several times, but he held the 'child' tightly in his arms. He couldn't let it escape.

X was still clutching his head, crouched over and rocking back and forth against the wall. The screams in his head were starting to die down and he was started to see clearly. He could see Kendra lying on her back on the floor, her chest heaving, and Sam was knelt before her, a small squirming creature in his arms. He felt like the urge to destroy them was gone. He began to rise to his feet. His body was aching but he felt all right. As he stood back up, he suddenly felt a presence behind him. He could see faint lights shining in his peripheral vision. Slowly, he turned around.

Sure enough, Coraline stood behind him. Her body was still bloodied and mangled and light shined from her eyes and mouth. He jumped at the sight of her and took a few steps back. His fist clenched tightly.

"You…" he said. "I don't know who you think you are, but I'm not letting you use me anymore."

The lights faded from Cora's face and returned to normal. She placed her hand on X's shoulder. Red, bloody tears seemed to be coming down her face as she stared at X.

"Son… please," she said through tears. "Don't let them take me from you. All you have to do is kill that which Sam holds in his arms. Don't make me die again…"

X attempted to keep his angry stare on Cora. He was weakening. This was his mother standing before him asking for his help. That was all his mind could process. He began to slowly turn towards Sam and Kendra, his expression dark. Slowly, he lifted his arm, aiming it at them. Without warning, from beneath the sleeve of his coat, a large pink fleshy tentacle lashed out, coming right at them. Kendra lifted her head weakly and her eyes widened.

"SAM! LOOK OUT!" she screamed.

Sam whirled around but he wasn't fast enough. The tentacle slammed into his side and knocked him to the ground. The Necromorph infant slipped from his grasp and was inches from the ground. X's tentacle quickly caught it before it hit the ground, curling around it tightly. The tentacle retracted back into X's sleeve, the squirming and screeching child now in his arms.

Cora appeared behind X's back, her eyes and mouth glowing into his face.

"Do it now, son," she said. "Kill the child and we shall be made whole again…"

Sam sat up, having recovered from the attack.

"NO!" he shouted. "DON'T!"

X didn't pay him any heed. He began backing up, disappearing into the darkness of the tunnel with the child in his arms. Its screams were echoing throughout the tunnels, when they suddenly stopped. All was silent. All that made noise was the dripping of sewer water. Sam didn't move. Nor did Kendra. It was the eeriest of silences. Finally, after what felt like hours, they saw something move in the darkness.


	33. A Matter of Time

**Chapter Thirty-Two: A Matter of Time**

Sam's eyes peered into the darkness of the tunnel. Something had moved, he knew it. Kendra hadn't moved from her spot. She was shaking with fear, her entire body aching from what she'd just been through. Sam crept closer, when suddenly his eyes widened. As fast as lightning, he dove backwards towards the ground, covering Kendra with his body. Out from the darkness burst the dragon shell, X sealed in its center. The shell made a sharp turn upwards, smashing through the sewer ceiling and out through the concrete into the open air outside. Rubble and debris hit Sam's back as he covered Kendra. As soon as he felt it subside, he stood up and rushed over to the massive hole in the ceiling. He stared up at it just in time to see the shell fly off into the sky.

Sam clenched his fist and cursed under his breath. He slammed his fist against the wall, creating a large hole in the wall.

"Damn it…" he muttered. "I was too late. Now it's only a matter of time before the Convergence…"

Kendra began to weakly sit up. She had not completely recovered but she felt a bit better.

"Sam… what are you talking about?" she asked. "What's going to happen to X?"

Sam slowly turned to her, an expression on his face that Kendra hadn't seen in years. It was fear. Pure, utter, real fear. He knelt down in front of Kendra, holding her shoulders.

"You have to listen to me, Kendra," he said, rubbing her shoulders gently. "What X has just done could mean the end of life as we know it on this planet. I need to contact the EDF and the others quickly before it's too late."

Kendra grabbed onto Sam's hand, tears falling from her face. "What are you talking about!?" she screamed. "Too late for what!?"

Sam exhaled deeply, rubbing his eyes. He turned back to Kendra, looking deeply into her tear-filled eyes.

"Convergence, Kendra," he replied. "That's what the Church of Unitology says will happen. I can't say for sure what will happen to X, but if we don't stop this somehow, Earth will become nothing but a lifeless planet of walking corpses."

Kendra tried desperately to hold back her tears as she stared into Sam's eyes. "How?" she asked. "How can we stop it?"

Sam sighed heavily. He'd been thinking about this since he'd arrived in the sewer. Every scenario and every possible plan had been running through his head, but none of them ended favorably. He looked at Kendra.

"I… don't know," he replied. "But all we can try to do right now is get X back. Maybe we can figure something out through him."

Sam stood up, holding his wrist device in front of him. "I'm calling the Earth Defense Force and the others," he said as he pressed buttons on it. "I think I may have an idea of how to get ahold of X…"


	34. Dragonslayer

**Chapter Thirty-Three: Dragonslayer**

The dragon shell soared over the city, circling the somehow still standing red and white of Tokyo Tower. The bright lights that usually shone from it at night were fading. A bright light shined from the dragon's chest as it circled in the air. A sound was coming from its massive mouth. It was an indiscernible noise, but it seemed to be having some effect. Every Necromorph in the city seemed to be responding to it, as they were heading towards Tokyo Tower in massive groups, paying no heed to their surroundings. As the beasts reached the tower, they all began climbing it, using their deformed appendages and limbs to hook onto the tower's railings and pull themselves up. The dragon shell continued circling the tower, keeping a close watch on the ascending Necromorphs.

On the buildings surrounding the tower, Sam, Milo, Zan, and Grover were stationed, armed to the teeth with Xilian weaponry. Sam knew he hadn't the time to get Kendra back to the safe house, so she stood beside him, armed with several defensive weapons.

Sam activated his wrist communicator. "Everybody ready?" he asked.

He received indications of affirmation from all of them.

"Alright, as soon as the _Gotengo_ shows up and draws the shell's fire, I'm moving in to sever its wings," Sam said. "You all must cover me until the shell is down, at which point Ozaki must separate X from that thing."

"_Dad…_" came Ozaki's voice. "_Why do I have to? You'll be on its back anyway, couldn't you do it?"_

Sam shakes his head. "No, Ozaki," he replied. "Believe it or not, you are in fact the strongest among us. You're the only one strong enough to penetrate that shell. Besides, I may not be in the position to do so once X is downed."

Ozaki nodded on the other end. He sat at the main gun of the _Gotengo_, Captain Gordon seated behind him along with the whole mutant crew. It had been a while since he sat in this ship and it felt like old times. Only, instead of Godzilla, he had to direct fire at his own brother.

Gordon had his eyes on the screen, which displayed the dragon shell circling Tokyo Tower. "Prepare to fire," he said.

The mutants began flipping switches and pressing buttons, reading the _Gotengo_'s weapons. Ozaki looked over at Gordon. "Ready to fire, sir." The lock on helmet lowered onto Ozaki's head, his eyes seeing only the dragon shell, the targets locked on it.

"Fire," Gordon said.

Ozaki's thumbs closed on the triggers. Immediately, the _Gotengo_'s guns opened fire, shooting missiles and energy bolts at the dragon shell. They exploded on contact, sending bits and pieces of necrotic flesh flying into the air. The shell turned its head to see the Gotengo. Immediately, its massive wings flapped and it hurtled itself at the ship. The Necromorphs, however, continued to scale Tokyo Tower.

Gordon's eyes narrowed. "Remember our plan, everyone," he said. "Get ready to fire maser."

Ozaki flipped several switches quickly and fixated his eyes on the dragon shell. He aimed the cannon and pressed the buttons. The familiar blue beam burst from the _Gotengo_'s drill. Immediately, the shell turned in the air, flying vertically. It looked like the maser would miss. However, it was faster than the shell thought. The beam struck the shell's left wing, freezing it solid. The shell began to fall slightly from the sky. It couldn't sustain itself for much longer. The shell flapped its only wing harder but it couldn't fly as easily.

"Go into ramming speed," said Gordon, staying as ambivalent as he always was.

Ozaki pushed the two levers forward. The _Gotengo_ began increasing in speed, charging toward the shell. Its drill began to turn faster and faster. The shell was slowing down but it kept itself in the air. Its large claw grabbed onto the side of a building. It could keep itself sustained, but its frozen wing was growing heavy. It couldn't move at all when the _Gotengo_ collided with it.

The spinning drill plowed into the shell's wing. It shattered on impact, scattering pieces of frozen necrotic flesh everywhere. A pained roar burst from the shell's mouth as it hoisted itself up onto the rooftop it clung to. Its left wing was completely gone and pieces rained down on the Necromorphs who still were making their way towards Tokyo Tower.

X was in utter pain. It felt like a part of his body had been ripped off. He clenched his teeth, trying to numb the pain.

However, he didn't see Sam on that same rooftop, running towards him at top speed. He leapt onto the back of the shell, his right hand glowing brightly with energy. He stood over the shell's right wing, raising his hand over him. His arm made a fast swiping movement across the wing. A long gold line followed the path that his arm did. Seconds later, the wing fell from the shell, crashing down on the rooftop. The shell reared back with a loud roar, which was becoming increasingly human sounding as opposed to reptilian. Sam jumped from the shell's back, his head turning to the _Gotengo,_ which was hovering in the air next to the building.

Ozaki stood from his chair, rushing to the door from which he could exit the ship. Gordon turned to him.

"Ozaki," he said. The Kaiser stopped. "Be careful out there."

Ozaki smiled with a short nod. He rushed out the door, climbing up the ladder to the outside. He stood atop the _Gotengo_, looking towards the rooftop. Sam stood there, along with the downed dragon shell, writhing uncontrollably and roaring. Ozaki clenched his fist and bent his knees. With all of his strength, he leapt from the ship to the rooftop, landing safely on his feet. The shell continued to flail, its tail swinging uncontrollably. Perhaps without it knowing, the tail slammed down onto the _Gotengo_ hard. It struck the ship's engine, causing a eruption of fire and shards of metal. The ship immediately began to fall from the air, crashing down into the ground below hard. Several Necromorphs were flattened and crushed as the drill slammed into the side of a building, slowly ceasing to spin.

Ozaki stared down at the wreckage of the battleship before turning back to the flailing, wingless dragon shell. It continued to flail viciously sending out agonizing screams and roars. Ozaki's fist clenched and his began to run. As he grew closer and closer to the shell, his body began to surge with golden energy. This was one of the first times he'd done this since the Final War. He was glowing brighter and brighter, almost looking like a star by the time he'd climbed atop the shell's back. The energy began to converge into his right fist until his fist resembled a small sun. With a shout, Ozaki plunged his fist into the back of the dragon shell. It easily broke through the dense, but fleshy shell, shattering it like glass. The shell's head reared back and from its mouth came an all too human shriek. But this didn't stop Ozaki. His fist continued to break each layer of shell despite its attempts to rebuild itself.

Finally, he felt his hand touch something in the center of the shell. It felt like a leather material. Any fool could tell that this was X's coat, or what remained of it. Ozaki reached lower and grasped onto what he knew was X's arm. Yelling loudly as he mustered all of the Kaiser strength in him, Ozaki pulled X out of the shell, his body breaking through the already large hole that Ozaki's fist had made. As X broke free of the shell and was released from Ozaki's hand and sent sprawling across the ground, the shell quickly began to collapse. Ozaki quickly jumped off of it, landing a few feet away. The shell's once dense carapace began to quickly melt into an organic soup. Before long, it was nothing but a puddle. Ozaki breathed a sigh of relief, when he suddenly felt hands grab his shoulders.


End file.
